Professor Russo
by TPDot Writer
Summary: After becoming a full wizard, Justin believed his biggest challenge would be taking over WizTech as the school's new Headmaster. However, after a season of preparatory courses (you know how he feels about preparation) and working closely with Professor Crumbs, he felt ready. That until Alex shows up for a visit. Just a silly funny fanfic. (Completely In Canon)
1. Chapter 1

Professor Russo

A/N: This story has some major references to elements of the series, which I hope you people get. In case you get lost somewhere, you can always message me. Also, I'm here to discuss anything.

Just to remind you all, English is not my first language. So I apologize in advance for any major grammar screw-ups, as I've said before. And if you find anything wrong, let me know. I'm always open to learn something new. Just remember to be nice. And reviews are always welcome.

Now, let's get to it. Hope you have fun.

.

.

.

* * *

Chapter 1 - Professor Russo Who?

.

.

Justin - or should that be Professor Russo, now? - works behind his desk in his Principal's office at WizTech. He reviews the schedules for next week, the beginning of classes, when a knock on the door interrupts his line of thought. It opens even before Justin has the chance to say anything, a head sneaking right in from behind the old door to reveal Professor Percy Fiendl, dean and professor of Potions of the school, with his constant vexing smile.

"How is our fearless leader in this radiant morning?" Fiendl happily - annoyingly - greets.

"What can I do for you, Professor?" Justin answers with not much of enthusiasm to his current second in command.

"I have news about the task you gave me." He says, coming inside the office.

"If I remember well, you were the one who insisted in doing it."

"I had just been chosen to be Deputy Headmaster. I wanted to prove myself to you, Sir." Fiendl says in an almost apologetic tone.

"Okay! So, what about it?"

"Oh! I believe I have found the perfect person to take over the Improvisation Class." Fiendl states, capturing Justin's attention.

"Really?" He asks, finally with some interest.

"Oh, yes Sir. She is great! She graduated this very school. She was a tutor here some time ago, so she has some experience in teaching. She is impressive with improvised spells, that according to Professor Crumbs. He endorsed her himself, by the way. He even says she is extraordinary."

"Yeah, he does that." Justin answers. "So, who is she? When can I meet her?"

"Oh, I will try to schedule a meeting with her today. I believe you could interview her in a couple of days in case she is interested. …Well, I don't believe she would refuse such an honor."

"Not everybody is into teaching, Professor Fiendl." Justin mutters, again looking down at the schedule in front of him.

"I mean working with you, Sir." Fiendl explains, supporting a happy smile.

Justin stares at him for a second. "Sure!" He lets out with a doubtful tone. "Well, bring her here as soon as possible. We have only a few days to go."

"I'll do my best, Sir." Fiendl states confidently then leaves the office.

Yeah! Maybe it wasn't Justin's best decision to make Fiendl his Deputy Headmaster. He is too… enthusiastic, let's put it this way, especially about Justin.

And he has to start locking that door.

Three days go by and Justin is getting a little anxious. The beginning of classes is only other three days away and the supposed new teacher hasn't showed up yet. Despite the insistence, Fiendl refuses to give any information alleging that Justin is already too busy and that he is taking care of everything. Not even the excuse of making a background check worked.

Maybe Justin will have to find a teacher himself, as his confidence in Fiendl's negotiation skills stand below convincing at this point. It wouldn't be a problem for Justin taking over the classes for a couple of weeks while he looks for someone. Improvisation is not his strongest, but he can pull it off. Actually, that is what he is going to do. He has in his office an address book filled with names of well-accomplished wizards he knows. He can probably convince one of them to join the school.

As Justin sets his mind on one more task he is taking over, he arrives at his office. With his mind completely absorbed by the amount of work he has ahead of him, he opens the door and comes in without even looking around. "Hey!"

"Ahhhh!" Justin screams to the voice coming from behind him, startled by the unexpected presence. The familiar laughter that follows his reaction brings back the so common feeling of frustration.

"Alex!" He angrily grunts, then turns around to look at her. Alex sits on the couch that stays in the corner beside the door, her feet propped up on the center table and a self-satisfied smile on her face.

"I wasn't actually trying to scare you, but sometimes you just get lucky." She tells him, letting out another laugh.

"What are you doing here?" Justin turns around and walks to his desk to drop the books he carries, already overstrung by her mere presence.

"What? Can't a girl pay a visit to her dear brother?" Her fake tone is totally there.

"Okay, now I know you want something."

"It's just that … we haven't seen each other for so long." Alex tells him, and it truly has been a long time since they last met. "You really don't believe I just wanted to see you?" All bogus, Justin can tell.

"No! And you called me 'dear brother.' That's never a good sign." Justin sits behind his desk.

"I just wanted to spend some time." Alex tells.

"Look, if you are bored or something, go find someone else to bother. I have serious work to do." He tells her while opening a drawer and taking his address book.

"Yeah, and that's all you do, now. Mom is kinda pissed with you, you know? It's been months since your last visit."

"I was busy. I had a lot of work reforming the teaching system here." He flips the pages.

"Even on Sundays? They told you there's no school on Sundays, right?" Alex mocks him.

"I needed some time to see Juliet."

"Liar!" Alex accuses. "I talked to her and she told me you two meet practically every night."

Justin freezes, a hint of embarrassment on his face. Yeah! Sometimes Justin does forget that Alex and Juliet are still friends. "Alex, let me work, okay!"

"Okay. I win, then." She states with some pride.

"Whatever."

They both stay in silence for a moment, Justin staring down at his address book, watched by Alex from the couch while she sips her juice from the giant plastic cup. She barely moves a muscle. Whatever! If she wants to stay, it's her problem, right? (Yeah! Sure!)

"You changed a lot of things in here." Alex finally breaks the silence. "It doesn't look anything like Professor Crumbs' old office." She points out.

"Yeah, I didn't like that old-fashioned look."

"By that you mean medieval?" Alex completes.

"Kind of! … You know, since I had to empty the office to get it cleaned up …and that was really necessary, trust me… I decided to decorate it my way." Justin answers even before he notices they started chatting.

"Hmmm! 'Crumbs'! I get it!" Alex finishes.

And a little more of the awkward silence.

"Hey! What happened to Professor Adlib? I heard you are looking for a teacher to take over the Improvisation Class." Alex tells, in a small talk kind of way.

"He retired a few weeks ago." Justin answers without paying much attention to Alex while still going over his address book.

She finally stands up and walks to the desk. "I liked him. It was funny when he started reciting poems in class and completely zoned out."

"Yeah!" He agrees with a smile.

Alex casually leans on the desk, "You know… I could do it." She says, hovering above Justin.

"What?!" He yells in complete surprise, finally giving her full attention. "I'm not gonna hire you to teach here!" He answers sounding a lot more affected than he wanted.

"Why not!?" Alex replies, with an offended tone.

"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna let you teach here. This place has standards."

"Standards!?" Alex shoots back, a little hurt. "I doubt you can find anyone better in make'em ups than me."

"It doesn't matter. You're not gonna teach here. There's no way that would happen."

Then Alex pulls a paper from her back pocket that was there all along, just waiting to be used at the right moment. She unfolds it and carefully places it in front of Justin, delicately holding it with two fingers, a devious smile on her face.

"WHAT!?" Justin screams after skimming the first few words of the document, making Alex laugh. He stands up, taking the paper in his hands. "The official Council stamp?" He whines.

"I'm your new Improvisation teacher!" Alex happily chants, cheering with an excited tone, arms raised in sign of victory. She rushes around the desk and hugs Justin by his side, not caring at all to the distaste on his face for being played again.

Justin looks down at the official Education Council paper in his hand while still being squeezed by Alex. "NO! No!" He pushes Alex's arms off and steps away. "This is not possible. You barely went through basics in here. A teacher must have completed the entire course."

"Wellllll… Do you remember your delinquents' classes I attended?" She maliciously asks, batting eyelashes, trying to look cute and sweet.

"Yeah!" Justin thinks for a second. "NOOO!" He exclaims.

"They completed the credits I needed." She only confirms his deduction.

"NO!" Justin denies again.

"So I'm perfectly eligible for being a teacher." She completes.

"This… This …just cannot be happening! How did you find out about this? And how do you even know the word 'eligible'?"

"Yeah! You know, that Percy guy you sent told me that eligible means…"

"I know what eligible means." Justin yells, interrupting her. "You mean Professor Fiendl went to look for you to offer the job?"

"Yes!"

"This isn't just one of your schemes?"

"Nope!" Alex keeps a big smile on, looking at Justin's mad and sad face. "Then, when I found out I could take the job, I asked him to keep it between us to make a surprise for you."

"And I LOVED IT!" One could say it was pure sarcasm, but no, there was a whole lot of anger in his voice. Then just the mad face remains.

"Soooo…" Alex stares at Justin for a moment, holding both hands in front of her, sweetly rotating her body side-to-side, with those big eyes of hers. "Where am I staying?"

Justin sadly looks down at the official paper in his hand and swallows his pride as a big lump. "I'll ask an assistant to show you your quarters, Professor Russo!" He grunts. It was hard to say that.

"Yay!" Alex celebrates, running one more time to her brother and hugging him again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Reconnecting

.

.

.

Moments after sending Alex away with an assistant, Justin intrudes Professor Fiendl's classroom with quick and angry steps, not even giving him the chance to talk before he shoots "Did you invite my sister to teach Improvisation?"

"Yes, I did, Sir." Fiendl answers with a self-satisfied tone and a big smile, which dies as soon as he sees Justin's angry face. "Professor Crumbs suggested and vouched for her. Do you think it was a bad decision?"

"Do you know why she's got so good at improvisation? Because she was too lazy to learn the proper spells."

"But, Sir, Professor Stumbler is legally blind in a number of states and, still, he is amongst the best foreseers out there. Just because he was tired of living up to his name."

"That's not even close to her!" Justin complains.

"What I mean is that no one knows what will bring out our best. In her case…"

"Just shut up!" Justin cuts him off. Seriously, he doesn't need anyone lecturing him about Alex. "And how did she find out that the Council could indicate a teacher without going through me? Who told her about the Council Stamp?" Justin asks.

"Well…" Fiendl starts with hesitancy. "She asked me if there was a way to keep just between us that she was getting the job. I said that all teachers have to go through the director's approval. Unless…" He takes a pause.

"Unless what?" Justin replies gritting his teeth, his neck vein already pulsing.

"Unless she got a Council indication." He answers.

Justin's right eye twitches once with Fiendl's answer.

"But I told her it was impossible without the indication of a high member."

"Well, I guess she found someone! Like Professor Crumbs!" Justin concludes in an aggrieved tone.

"So … you mean I shouldn't have said anything?" Fiendl asks and Justin's eye twitches again. He voices a mad grunt, then turns around and leaves the office clenching his fists.

At Justin's request, the assistant takes Alex to the classroom where she is going to teach her class. Behind the large professor's desk, far back in the room, a door takes to the quarters she is going to occupy. And it's huge. A giant living room with a kitchen is the welcoming piece, then a door takes to the bedroom, not any smaller. Oh, she is going to be so fine in here, just a few more girly touches and it will be perfect, plus a big TV because nothing is changing for her.

At noon, Justin has his lunch. His plate proudly filled with his new and healthier menu. Still, he kept a few of the not so healthy items at the request of the teachers; there is even mini-pizza every now and then, or some fried, greasy items. And that is exactly what Alex's plate is mostly filled with when she sits beside him.

"Where did you get this food?" He asks at the sight of her less than healthy meal while she takes a big bite on her hotdog.

"I have a wand!" She mockingly answers with her mouth still full. Justin shakes his head, disapprovingly, while Alex struggles to swallow the chunk. "I liked the old menu!" She whines as soon as it's all down.

"The kids need healthy food. I changed it for them." Justin defends his beloved menu.

"I'm not one of the kids." Alex points out.

"You have the same self control as one." Justin gets pretty proud of this one.

"HEY!" She complains, offended. "I can pick my own food. Can't you see how slim I look?"

Justin stares at her. "Haven't you and Harper moved in together again? Like, isn't that why she forced you to take that designer job at her internship?"

She stares deadpan at him. "Your point is…?" It doesn't really look cute when she talks with her mouth that full.

"I bet she is the one doing all the cooking."

"I cook, too…" She whines. "… like… …when I boil some hot dogs… …or make popcorn…" Her voice trails off, a little. "…See!? I cook!"

Justin gives her a sarcastic stare and goes back to his healthy plate.

But that wouldn't get Alex down. She doesn't stop talking about every little thing happening at home. The changes Max made in the SubStation; how it was moving in with Harper again, especially how she made sure this time the place had no connections with the magical world, aside the adjustments she made herself.

During her second portion of pudding, a chocolate one this time, Professor Fiendl interrupts them.

"Sir!" He formally introduces himself.

"Professor Fiendl!" Justin answers.

"Hey, Percy!" Alex compliments him.

"Miss Russo! Sir, I believe I managed to find replacements for Professor Stumbler's missing crystal balls."

"Great!" Justin answers, a little impressed. "Where did you find them?"

"I sought for the factory you mentioned. When I told them about the balls you needed…"

Alex snorts holding back a laugh.

"I mean…" Fiendl rethinks his wording. "…when I told them our school needed crystal balls and that it was a favor for our grand Principal they agreed in providing a whole batch, even more than the couple balls you need."

Alex laughs again, harder, and Justin gives Fiendl a mad stare. "I mean, the crystal balls we need. That our school needs." He corrects himself again, looking ashamed.

And Alex cannot hold herself longer. "So you finally decided to make it official that you have no balls?" She mocks Justin.

He also gives her a scolding stare, "And…", then back to Fiendl. "…when are the crystal balls arriving?" Justin asks, trying to ignore his sister.

"According to them, since it's for you, Sir, they will have it delivered tomorrow."

"That's great!" Justin replies.

"And that only at the mention of your name." Fiendl says in wonderment. "So young and so well renowned, already!" He lets out in a satisfied sigh then leaves.

Alex stares at the man with a scrunched up face as he moves away. "That was creepy!" She says turning to Justin. He looks at her and just shrugs. "Oh! Come on, Justin. Don't tell me that doesn't creep you out?" She complains.

"That's just how he is!" He answer.

"Hmmm!… I don't like him." She tells.

"Why!?" He asks with some surprise.

"Because he's a kissup!?" She answers as if that summed everything up.

"So what? At least he's being nice."

"Yeah. Then you let your guard down. And that's when they turn on you and trip you."

"Alex, would you stop that! No one is gonna trip anybody. He is a professor here, a well-accomplished wizard with a good history. Professor Crumbs brought him in before me."

"Actually, Professor Crumbs doesn't have the best backtrack at figuring people out!" She tells him.

"Yeah, fine! … But he didn't get it always wrong. I mean, he put me in here." He realizes soon enough he screwed up when he sees Alex ready to retort. "Shut up!" He shouts before she has the chance.

Alex purses her lips and shrugs at him. "You know, I can't believe you replaced Professor Adlib with that guy as your Vice Headmaster!" She complains.

"It wasn't like that. I didn't just replace Adlib! He decided to retire… On a short notice… By email." Justin tells.

"And Fiendl was the best you could get or you just needed a massage on your ego?"

"Actually, Fiendl was really helpful wherever Adlib was lacking. He was always more than ready to help, so it felt right to give him the job at the time." That did sound more to himself than to her.

"Mmmm! Whatever!" Alex replies. "So… Someone stole some crystal balls?"

"We're not sure they were stolen. They disappeared from the Prophecies' classroom after last semester. Maybe some kids were playing with it, got them broken and they hid it so they wouldn't get into trouble." Justin theorizes.

"Or they were stolen." Alex insists.

"I told you, we don't know!" Justin concludes.

"Mmm-Hmm!" She gives him a suspicious stare. She knows that Justin must have something by now. "By the way, who are WE?"

"Professor Stumbler and I." Justin delivers without much explanation.

"And who's that?"

"It's our Prophecies teacher. That one with the glasses on the other table." He waves his head to the next table.

Alex turns around and searches for the man. As soon as she finds him, she stares back at Justin, deadpan. "Those are not glasses. Those are telescopes!"

"Stop it, Alex?"

"Come on! I think he doesn't even need crystal balls. Those glasses do it for him." She states, smiling.

"Would you cut that off?"

"No, wait! I got another one!" She says in a laugh, waving her hand at him. "While you two were looking for the crystal balls, was he looking up or down? Because if he was looking up, he was probably just counting craters on the moon." Alex laughs really hard. "I'm so on fire today!"

Smiling, Justin looks straight at Alex. "Stop it. That's just rude!"

"Come on. Admit it. You liked it."

"It's still rude."

"That's not a 'no'!"

And a few moments of silence endure between them - because Justin is trying to discourage this king of behavior - while he checks something on his phone and Alex takes the final portions of her pudding. Suddenly she straightens up on her chair with a loud gasp of a sudden revelation.

"Justin, I think I know what Stumbler did to the crystal balls!" She tells him.

Justin looks up at her, eyes tightly squinted and forehead scrunched up, averse to the idea that Stumbler had anything to do with the disappearance. He peeks at the professor while his brain works on the charade. And then he gets it. "Stumbler did not turn the crystal balls into lenses for his glasses!" He sternly puts.

"How do you know he didn't?" She retorts.

"You know what? I have more important things to do than listen to your nonsense." Justin stands up and, instead of heading straight to the exit, he walks to where Stumbler sits.

"Professor Stumbler." Justin calls him loud enough for Alex to listen from her table. "I'm glad to inform you that we found replacements for the missing crystal balls." Justin informs.

"Oh, and I'm glad to know. Thank you, Headmaster Russo." Stumbler offers Justin a handshake.

"You're welcome, Professor!" Justin takes his hand, smiling. Then, in a sudden move, he bends down closer, still holding Stumbler's hand to keep him from backing off. Justin attentively studies the man's glasses, each lens at a time, trying to be sure. Then he gets back up straight, dropping the man's hand and giving him one last smile.

Justin walks away, again instead of heading to the door he returns to Alex and lowers close to her. "He didn't do it!" He whispers to her.

"But I made you look!" She answers, smiling. Why the hell does she always end up having the final word?

Justin grunts and finally helms to the door.

The rest of the day goes on uneventfully, pretty much. Well, if that is what you call Justin being constantly poked and mocked for every time Alex can remember taking advantage on him or for simply coming out on top, for every little thing she took from him. Like… he still haven't found his lightsaber - after she properly hid it again, of course.

And yes, she makes sure to follow Justin everywhere. She tells him she is trying to get into the teaching mood. Yeah, right!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Alex will always be Alex - to Justin's dismay

.

.

.

For the next couple of days, Justin tries to inform Alex of the rules the school follows and the subjects she will have to approach during classes. Developing the kids' improvisation skills is not the limit of what Alex will be teaching. It is part of her class to help the kids with their magical skills as a whole, the same way Justin helped her improve her ability in his delinquents' class; or helping the kids at making spells without chanting rhymes, being they improvised or not.

Justin does his best to keep Alex interested as he instructs her. However, with her short attention span, 'try' is the precise word to use. "Remember when Dad taught us about…"

"Hey, Harper!" Alex interrupts him.

Startled, Justin turns around to catch her with her phone to her ear. Well, at least Alex didn't teleport Harper in, as he immediately assumed, but still…

Justin stares at her, scolding. Did she really just answer her phone while he was still talking?

"No! It's left, then right, and right again. Why didn't you take the map I did?" She tells Harper.

"Alex!" Justin shouts, trying to call her attention. Does he really think she would just drop the call to listen to him?

"Where are you now?" Alex asks to her friend at the other end. "No, to the left!" She shouts, then takes her phone off her ear. "This way's gonna take forever." She pulls her wand and points it to the phone.

"What's going on?" Justin asks.

"Harper got lost inside our closet. And I'm taking her out of there." She waves her wand and the spell hits the phone, hopingly getting to the other end. Justin is left only wondering how big her closet is.

Alex brings the phone to her ear again. "YOU FLASHED ME OUT OF THE APARTMENT!" Harper's alarmed voice sounding as clear as if she were in the room, even Justin hears it coming from the phone.

"Dammit!" Alex curses. Then she points her wand to the phone again. She casts another spell hoping to correct her mishap. "Are you back in? … Oh, great! … Next time you get into the closet, take with you that map I leave hanged on the door. I always…"

"ALEX!" Justin yells.

"Uhm! … I gotta go now, or Justin is gonna start yapping something about paying attention, and I'm not in the mood to pay attention, but he's gonna keep talking and talking…" She looks up at Justin, catching his mad stare. "…I gotta go. Bye!" She hangs up.

"Now I AM gonna 'yap' about paying attention. …And a bit more about concentrating when you're casting a spell, which you still can't handle, apparently!" Justin schools.

"Can we say this was enough telling off and go have lunch?" Alex tries.

"No!" Justin sternly answers.

"But I'm getting hungry. And you know how grumpy I get when I'm hungry. I'm just saying."

"Ugh… Fine!" Justin agrees. He is also getting hungry and he is so not in the mood to deal with this.

Again, Justin and Alex sit together for another lunch. Yeah! Justin can't seem to shake her off anymore, not even during lunch. Oddly, Alex has been quiet for a few minutes, practically stuffing her face with food, staring down at her plate. This is so not like her. Eventually, she finally looks up and breaks the silence.

"Hey!" Alex whispers to Justin. "Who is that one with the creepy stare!" She nods to the side showing the weird man sitting by the edge of the long table next to theirs.

"Oh! That is Professor Stein. He teaches about magical creatures." Justin explains.

Alex peeks back at the gnarly, deformed man, and their eyes cross for a second. Alex looks away, but not quick enough. The man stands up and clumsily works on his wizard cape.

"Oh, no! I think he is coming here." Alex says with a worried tone.

"What's the problem?" Justin asks when the man starts walking to them.

"He's too creepy!" She whispers back.

"You are the one who dates a werewolf. You should be used to 'creepy'." Justin replies.

"He doesn't look wolf-y the whole time. Well, not when it's important!"

The strange professor gets by their side before Justin can reprehend her. "Headmaster Russo." He greets Justin with his hoarse voice. "You must be Miss Russo."

Alex looks up at him with concerned eyes while taking a bite on her mini-pie, now recognizing the man as a mixture of a goblin and something familiar she can't quite figure out.

"I'm Professor Stein! But you can call me Frank if you want!" He continues.

Alex freezes for a moment and gives him a surprised look. "Frank… Stein!?" She repeats with curiosity after swallowing.

"Yes!"

"FrankStein!" She quickly repeats his name almost as one single word.

"That's right!" Stein reaffirms. Then, a second after, he looks away, pensive, as if no one has ever done this before. "Anyway…" He comes back after a couple of seconds. "…You see, Miss Russo. I have read somewhere about your werewolf boyfriend."

"Y.e.a.h.!?" She takes another bite on her mini-pie.

"Well, being a scholar of magical creatures I would… Uhm!" He bends down closer, invading Alex's personal space, making her back up. "…I would love to be able to have a quick talk to him." He asks, rubbing his hands in expectation. Not creepy at all.

"Stein?!" Justin calls. "What have we talked about personal space?"

Stein takes a step back and stares at Alex, waiting for an answer.

"Uhm! … Sorry but he is in England right now." She tells him.

"Hmmm! Pity. Some other time maybe. See you around." He turns around and leaves.

Alex watches the man walk away for a moment, then turns back to Justin. "You better keep that guy away from my boyfriend!" She demands.

"Calm down. That was just his way. He's not gonna do anything." Justin tells her.

"I don't care. I don't wanna see what happens if he and Mason get at each other."

"They won't. Stein is more attitude than action."

"Whatever!"

"So, Mason is visiting the family?" Justin asks.

"The Autumn Moon Feast is coming. He's gonna spend some time there preparing for it. He'll be back right after." She explains.

"And, let me guess. You didn't go because his parents still want you for the main dish?" He supposes with a mocking smile.

Alex stares at him with narrow eyes. "Why the mocking tone? Even Juliet's parents thought I looked delicious." She throws her hair back, exposing her neck. "Sometimes can be a curse to look this good."

Justin simply shakes his head. He doesn't even know how to answer that.

They take a little recess so Justin can solve some school related subjects, but mostly because he knows how grumpy Alex can also get without some post meal slack. …Anyway, they get back to the instructions, eventually.

It is already very late by the time Justin finally gets to tell Alex everything he believes she absolutely has to hear about what she will be teaching before facing a full class. Then, he finally lets her go.

By now, Alex has seen so much that the darkness and eeriness of the hallway that takes her back to her quarters, this late at night, doesn't feel that menacing. Fine, it's not comfortable either, but close to something like facing the Angels of Darkness, she can do this.

However, she still gets startled when she runs into Professor Fiendl in the hallways, and so does he.

"Miss Russo!" He tells her with surprise. "What are you doing out so late?"

Alex can feel something about his voice, some apprehension. "I was talking to my brother. What are YOU doing out so late?" She asks him with a suspicious look.

"I was… just… taking a walk because… " Fiendl stammers. "…I couldn't sleep. That's just it."

Alex's bullshit alert goes off. She gives Fiendl a narrow stare.

"Really?!" She takes a look around at the dark and cold, not at all inviting eerie hallway. "Because the place is calming and warm, I assume!" She calls him out on it.

"Uhm! … You warm up to it after some time." He tries to fix it.

"I'm sure you do. Just one warning. I'm the prankster here. So, whatever you're up to, don't think you can top me because if you're trying anything, I'll get back at you!" She warns him with a mad stare.

"I'm not trying anything." He defends himself with hands up in sign of innocence. "I was just … taking a walk."

"Yeah, right. I've got my eye on you." Alex delivers and walks away, giving him one last suspicious peek from the end of the hallway. Then she goes straight to her quarters to end the day.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Rules and how not to follow them

.

.

.

 **A/N** :

W.I.P.S. = Wizard Instant Parcel Service.

(Wizards of Waverly Place s01e13 Wizard School - Part 1)

The instant mail from Wizard School Part 1, the one they use by opening a portal with an old key mid-air. It's that thing Alex uses to wipe clean the living room in the first part of the Wizard School two-episode story, what makes her parents enroll her in WizTech with Justin.

.

.

.

Next day comes and the students arrive to occupy the school. Justin and Alex spend the last day before classes with more instructions, this time as to how she should treat the kids. Or that would be how not to treat them.

"It doesn't matter what happens…" Justin starts. "You can never… EVER… use spells against the students." He emphasizes.

"What if one gets turn into a brick?" Alex interrupts him.

"The kids are not guinea pigs. You cannot just play with them as you like." Justin retorts.

"So I leave the kid as a brick?" Alex completes.

"No, you turn him back." He tells her, aggravated.

"That would be using a spell on him." Okay, now she is just trying to annoy him.

"Just turn the kid back." Justin raises his voice. "I mean you can't use spells AGAINST students, like use it as punishment, or one of your pranks."

"Why would I prank a kid?" She asks, with clear confusion.

"I stopped trying to understand how your mind works a long time ago." He replies.

"It's not fun pranking a kid. …Seeing them screw up, on the other hand…"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Fine! I'm not gonna use the kids as guinea pigs!" She responds with vexation.

"AND you're not gonna use…"

"…spells against them. I get it. And just so you know, when I asked, I didn't mean I was the responsible." Alex completes.

"Yeah! Right!" Justin replies, earning a sarcastic eye-squeeze from Alex.

That is mostly the content of their session throughout the day. Despite the fact that Justin has to wake Alex up a few times, they get through it unharmed. Well, that on Justin's side. But, at least Alex got to catch up on her sleep.

Justin is done with the instructions for the day. Finally! The sun is setting down and now Alex has some time to take care of her own things. So she makes a quick stop in her room to get some snack and a little purse she will use for something, later. She goes out again, crossing the school to the next wing. She quickly walks down the hallway while it is still empty, getting to the isolated corner where Fiendl's classroom is. He really shouldn't leave his classroom open while he is away, it makes things too easy.

Alex peeks in the room and there is no one inside. Great! She comes in, right away looking for the supply cabinet. And she finds it, two of them. She stares at the twin cabinets, side by side against the wall. She chooses the one on the left. The moment she opens the doors and the light hits what is inside, an animal screech startles her.

"SHHHH!" Alex shushes the miniaturized hippogriff trapped inside of a jar. "I'm trying to be sneaky here." She whispers and the animal surprisingly complies. Damn! Wrong cabinet. This is the one with live animals for ingredients. It's not what she needs. Second try on the other cabinet.

She opens it and runs her eyes over the items searching for what she needs. First one she finds is the horn of unicorn glue, and promptly she takes the horn-shaped container.

Time to put that tiny purse to use. She grabs it, barely big enough to cover her hand and aims the ingredient at the opening of the much smaller purse. She drops the item and it impossibly disappears inside. Yeah, about that. The spell Justin once used when Alex tried to steal the Book of Forbidden Spells, the one that ended up trapping her inside his purse? Yeah, she finally got that spell figured out.

Oh, and it's similar to the one she used to make her walk-in closet.

Alex takes a few more components she needs: some potion diluent, because she doesn't want the potion to be permanent, also some more technical potion items, because for once she studied. She stuffs everything inside the small purse, closes it then the cabinet, and she is ready to leave.

Alex quickly walks away, and straight to her quarters. She has some cooking to do.

A lot later, far after everyone was done working, a bright glow comes from outside the door to Justin's office, instantly illuminating the empty, dark room. The door slides, opening a small gap, then a hand pushes it a bit more.

Alex sneaks her head in to peek inside. "Perfect!" Justin is not in. She smiles to herself for the perfect opportunity.

Of course she would know exactly which spell to use to break into Justin's office, the one that would cancel any protection he put there. After years around him she knows exactly how he thinks.

She walks in, closes the door behind her and turns the lights on. Okay! Now, let's get to work.

Alex looks around, so many possibilities in every corner. It has to be the perfect place. The only problem is that she cannot just use the potion anywhere, like the chair. What would be the fun if Justin undid it easily. She knows exactly how good he is. He can probably undo any spell she can cast. He only has to take his wand and…

…AND … if he couldn't catch his wand…!?

That's it!

She looks to her side and there it is, the big shelf full of books that she knows he uses often, most of them very big. Actually, they are so big that there is a reading stand beside the shelf to use them, too big even to catch it with one hand. And the biggest of them lies on a separate, lower shelf. A mischievous smile forms on her lips.

Alex puts her hand in her pocket and pulls out a small flask. Inside, a glittery dust, the potion she cooked just before. She opens it and drops a little bit on the big book on the separate shelf. The dust disappears as it touches the book. Uhm! Maybe a little bit more! … And another sprinkle just to be sure.

Then she looks at all the other books in the shelf, and at the flask that is still half-full. She considers it for second. To hell with it! She spreads the rest of the potion on all the books. Yeah! That's gonna work.

Alex smiles. Now that it's done, she just has to wait. If everything works out alright, tomorrow is going to be a good day. She turns off the lights and comes out of the office. Oh, the spell on the door! "Whatever Justin did to keep me out, cast it back on this door, now!" She whispers, waving her hand.

Yeah! Apparently it worked.

Now, Alex has to sneak back to her room. She walks around the hallways, careful not to make any noise. She even picked the right pair of sneakers for it.

She makes her way through the hallways, back to her room. One more turn and…

Alex practically stumbles against Professor Fiendl. Again! It takes a few seconds for the adrenaline rush to settle. Then Alex stares at him with a suspicious look.

"You again! What are you doing out here so late?" She asks him with a completely intentional accusatory tone.

"Well… I was… making a round…" He stammers while backing up from Alex's menacing stare. "You know, to see if there are any students out of bed. Apparently, some time ago, one student tried to escape from here. Looks like the kid even tried to use the W.I.P.S. I mean, who would try something like that?" He laughs.

Alex stares at him for a second, wide-eyed, taken aback. "Oh, really? I think that is a genius idea!" Yeah, that was totally her.

"That spell was not made for people." Fiendl answers. "It's not safe. The mailing could go wrong."

"It's never gone wrong with me!" Alex says, absentmindedly.

"'With you'?" Fiendl asks.

"Uhm! … I mean FOR me. Like… when I send some package to somebody." Alex corrects. Well, more like dissimulates.

"Oh! Sure. Honest mistake." Fiendl understands.

"But, back to where we were. I thought kids here were too nerdy to try something like running away?" Alex talks with obvious suspicion.

"We like to think that our kids know better than trying to escape." Fiendl agrees. "But we prefer to be safe. I mean, if they tried once…"

"Good to know my big brother learned something!" From her, that is what she means. "Anyway… Just so you know, I still got my eye on you." She says then starts walking away, her eyes fixed on his with a suspicious stare.

Then she goes straight back to her room. The day has been long and full of excitement. She really wants to go to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Class is on

.

.

.

The next day comes; too soon for Alex's standards.

Now, minutes away from her first class, Alex sits behind her desk waiting for her students to arrive. Well, sits only in theory. She is practically lying on her chair. Yeah! Her chair; her desk; her classroom. That is a new feeling for her, to be on the other team. She is the teacher now, the one with the power, the one to be hated - not that this bothers her.

Her face hides behind her art magazine, which she flips while she waits.

The kids arrive. All of them 14, 15, maybe 16 years old, around the same age Alex was when she started learning improvisation. They come in calmly and in order, one by one taking their sits. No running, no loud screaming.

Alex slightly lowers her magazine, eyes squinted in a puzzled expression, and watches them as they occupy the classroom. She can't believe they are so tamed. … No problem, she will take that out of them.

Alex gets up from her chair and walks to the front of the class. She looks around at the kids, all staring at her, not one sound in the classroom as they wait for her to start. Seriously, they are creeping her out. Could they be any more nerdy?

On the black board behind her, same as her father did when he taught her along with Justin and Max, it's written "Spell Improvisation or Make'em Ups" in very artistic and big letters.

"For young wizards, among the most important skills to master is Spell Improvisation or, as we commonly call it, make'em ups." She almost repeats her father's words, as Justin instructed her a day ago.

Alex walks around, in front of the students. "That's when you have to create a new spell completely off the top of your head in a moment of need." Well at least she remembered this part on her own.

"BUT…" She puts on a lot of emphasis. "…just because it's possible, it doesn't mean it's easy. It takes a lot of practice to make it work the right way … Well, I mean, the way you want it to work. It doesn't mean it's always the right thing. That's usually my case!" She says in a laugh.

But the kids show no reaction. Really?! What is Justin doing to these kids?

"Errr! … Alright!" Alex tries to recompose herself. "Just to give you an example that things are not always that easy, the first time I tried a 'make'em up' I ended up trapped inside of a horror movie. My brother had to come in after me and help me get out. And when we got out, we ended up bringing the villain of the movie out with us."

"Wow! Wicked!" Says the student who is just next to Alex. "It must've been a pain to put him back in the movie."

She looks down at him, deadpan expression on her face. Then she looks up, eyes squeezed trying to force her memory, " _Did we?_ " comes to her mind, followed by a few more seconds of doubt. " _Whatever! That was Justin's problem, anyway. He did the spell that got us out._ " She concludes.

"The point is…" She quickly turns around and walks away. "…without practice, this kind of spells can be unpredictable. With some experience you will know the things you can or cannot do, and how." Again she stops beside the same kid. "Until there…" She points straight at him, a menacing narrow stare on her eyes. "DON'T TRY IT!"

The kid stares at her, wide-eyed, surely scared. Exactly what Alex wants.

"UNDERSTAND?!" She shoots at the rest of the class with the same stern stare, getting the same reaction from them.

"Good!… … Now…" She turns around and walks back to the front of her class.

"PROFESSOR RUSSO!?" Justin's voice comes out of the speaker system, interrupting Alex's introductory class.

She holds back a laugh that almost escapes her, a smile still hanging on to her lips, though.

"Please present yourself to the Headmaster's office." Justin's voice continues with a slight hint of how angry he is, even if still keeping a slow pace. "RIGHT NOW!" He shouts, turning off the speaker.

"Excuse me, class!…" Alex tells the students mid laugh. "I have to answer the Headmaster's call. I think we can call it a day. Just don't destroy the classroom."

Moments later, Alex comes in to Justin's office and finds him on the floor, both hands and a foot stuck on that bigger book that stood alone on a shelf. Alex breaks down laughing, of course.

"GET THIS SPELL OFF ME!" Justin yells.

Alex laughs even harder. She takes her cell phone and snaps a picture of his… well… situation. Only then she actually walks in, going to the cabinet on the back. She takes the undo dust clearly displayed on an open shelf, comes back to Justin and sprinkles a little bit on top of him, breaking the effect.

Justin quickly gets up. He angrily throws the book on the couch and shoots Alex a mad stare. "I know you did this!" He affirms gritting his teeth.

"Yup! I'm just sorry I lost you trying to get the speaker on. That must've been hilarious." She laughs again.

"Let me guess. You put the same spell on all the books on the shelf. …Didn't you?"

"Of course! How would I know which one you were going to take? I had to play it safe!" Alex tells him.

"Undo it, now!" He demands with a fierce tone.

"Fine." She opens the pot and drops a bit on her hand, then she throws it against the bookshelf.

Rubbing her hands clean, Alex says "Just call if you need me to do it again." She turns around and leaves quickly.

It takes a couple seconds but "Wait! What?" He realizes. "What do you mean? Why would I need you again?" He yells at her, but she is already gone. Could she have put any other spell in there? "ALEX!" he screams for her again, to no effect.

And now he is going to spend the rest of the day afraid of falling into another one of her pranks. She so knows how to play him.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Blasts from the past (that keep blasting and blasting)

.

.

.

One more day, and Alex takes on another class. And another important lesson.

"There is one very important rule that you should always remember. There are two expressions that you should never, EVER use in a spell." Alex walks back to the blackboard and starts writing on it.

"MAKE ME" and "DO ME" she writes in giant letters, visible even to the kids at the back of the classroom.

"I mean, you can have your try with these if you want to, but I can say that it's more likely to get right back at you."

This time around, Alex uses the class to allow the kids to improvise their own spells. That, of course, after giving them a few tips on the art of improvising. One by one, they show her their take on the tasks she assigned and she allows them to have a try. Some, with a little help, turn out alright, some not so much. The result? Well…

Alex intrudes Justin's office, one more time without knocking. That thing about locking the door, it's definitely going to happen. "Hey!" She greets and happily hops to his desk. "I need a new desk for my classroom."

"What? Why?" He gives her a surprised, confused, and a little bit angry look. How could she have destroyed a desk in her first week?

"Well, I was letting the kids try their spells out and some of them didn't turn out so good. I told this kid I wanted him to make a spell to make the dust on my desk go away. So he ended with something like 'make the dust OF this desk leave this room.' …The table turned into dust and it flew out the window."

"Why didn't you correct him before he cast the spell? Didn't you see it was wrong?"

"Yeah!" She answers in a sigh. "But that desk was very ugly … and it was really dirty, so! … Anyway, you know that, sometimes, kids have to screw up themselves to see how things can go wrong."

"Yeah, you would know that."

"Heeeey!" She interjects emphatically. "I became a great wizard because of all the times I screwed up. And that helped you improve just as much." Then she smiles as her memory recalls their childhood adventures. "…And I really liked seeing things going haywire." She smiles again.

"Fine!" Justin tells her, getting up. "Let's go to the dungeons beneath the castle. There's a storage down there."

"There's a dungeon down here?" She asks with a slightly excited tone, one that grants her a scared look from Justin.

"This is a castle." Justin reminds her. "They used to need dungeons. But now it's just a large empty space where we can pile stuff. It's full of old desks and other unused furniture."

"Oh!" Alex interjects, disappointed. "Such a pity they didn't keep it. You know, just for fun."

"Okay! You're scaring me right now. Let's just get going." Justin grabs Alex's arm and they leave.

"Come on, imagine how fun it would be to see the kids' faces when you told them they would be sent there if they fail any classes." Alex laughs.

And Justin makes a point to ignore it.

On their way to the dungeons, the Russos go past the Library, a part of the castle Alex has never seen, maybe because she never dared to get this close to a place with so many books. They go by a few more closed doors, then the hallway turns into a narrow passage that ends at a staircase.

After going down a long flight of stairs, they get to a small hall with a door at the end, and immediately they see a hunched creature under a cape fiddling on the door.

Justin pulls his wand right away. "Stop right there!" He yells at the person.

"Yeah! Stop right there!" Alex reinforces, also pulling her wand.

The man turns around in absolute dread and backs off against the door. It's Professor Stumbler himself. His heavy glasses hang across his face, knocked by the strong impact on the door.

"Professor Stumbler! What are you doing down here?" Justin calmly asks dropping his wand while he walks closer to Stumbler.

"Yeah! What are you doing here?" Alex repeats him, only aggressively. Justin looks at her and pushes her arm down to lower her wand.

"I… was… looking for a few items… for my class." Stumbler stammers with a worried tone. "Fiendl let me in. I promise I was just taking a few chairs because the kids were complaining about sitting on cushions. I have them all here. You can look." He raises a small bag.

"Calm down, Stumbler. It's okay." Justin assures him.

"Unless you're up to something." Alex accuses. "Are you up to something shady?" She glares at him.

"N-no!… I'm not! I promise." He says straightening his glasses with shaky hands. And that brings back to Alex's mind her idea about his glasses.

She steps closer to him, staring at the glasses while moving her head up and down, side to side, checking them out for herself this time. She checks one lens, then the other, just in case they are actually made of crystal balls.

"Okay, Alex! Back off!" Justin tells her, pulling her back by the arm. "You can go, Professor. It's alright. Just give me a heads up next time you need something from down here."

"I sure will, Headmaster Russo." The man dodges Alex and quickly walks away.

Justin gives Alex a disapproval stare.

"What!?" She asks.

"Let's get in." Justin opens the heavy doors showing the inside of the room, a giant space filled with old and unused school furniture and other materials. Alex looks around, amazed by the size of it.

As they walk into the storage, following the path that takes them straight ahead along piles of old stuff, the doors slam closed behind them. The loud noise startles Alex.

"Calm down! It's just the door." Justin tells her.

"Yeah! Until it isn't!" She fires back.

Then, not far ahead, Alex sees it, back from their distant past. "Whoa!" She interjects. "Look at this. The Twelve Ball Table." She walks to it.

"Yeah. Lots of memories from this one." Justin says with a sentimental tone.

"What is it doing down here? Doesn't anyone play it anymore?"

"No! After what happened to us, Professor Crumbs brought it down here. It could create conflict between the students." Justin explains.

Alex takes one bidaddle, the two-sided paddle used to play the game, and waves it in the air. "You know, I never got it. What playing a stupid game had to do with being the most powerful wizard?"

"Well, did you really think a person could handle playing with 12 balls at once?" Justin slowly walks to the table and takes the only other bidaddle in view. "These are magical paddles. They use the magical ability of the wizard holding it to play the game. The more skilled as a wizard you are, the better you play." He says, waving the bidaddle. Then he starts looking around. "Actually, there should be a few more of these in here."

"Ohhh! Now THAT makes sense." Alex tells him.

"Really? What?"

"Yeah, I knew you couldn't be that good at a sport."

"Shut up. … Let's go. Desks are that way." Justin drops the paddle, turns around and starts walking away.

And Alex follows him. "So that settles it. You're the Wizard World's ultimate nerd."

"Shut up!" Justin repeats, raising his voice in annoyance, without looking back.

Well, after rummaging around the place they eventually find a table Alex is content with. Surely it is a big one, even bigger than Justin's desk. Not that she needs all that, it's just bother/sister rivalry.

"Proton, neutron, get gone." Justin shrinks the table so Alex can take it to her classroom. "Watch out. Don't lose any drawers." Justin hands the miniature table to Alex.

"Aww! I almost don't wanna make it big again." She answers.

"We gotta go. It's getting late." Justin tells and Alex follows him to the exit. No, she doesn't go silent. But who wants to hear her rant about how she would tell the kids there is a dungeon in the castle. You know, Juliet told her a few stories about dungeons, and she lost some time listening to them, so she could at least put them to use.

They make their way back, coming up the stairs and all the way back to the Library.

That's when, for a single second, they hear a noise all too far to realize exactly what that is, but surely enough to capture their attention. Then they hear it again, this time a very close and terrifyingly loud animal screech.

Alex turns to Justin with goggled eyes to meet his also scared gape.

"Was that a…?" She partly asks him.

"…Hippogriff!" He completes, shouting an aggravated statement.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - The Hippogriff, the Wizards and the Cabinet.

.

.

.

 _That's when, for a single second, they hear a noise all too far to realize exactly what that is, but surely enough to capture their attention. Then they hear it again, this time a very close and terrifyingly loud animal screech._

 _Alex turns to Justin with goggled eyes to meet his also scared gape._

 _"Was that a…?" She partly asks him._

 _"…Hippogriff!" He completes,_ _shouting an aggravated statement._

 _._

 _._

 _._

After a second of frozen panic, Justin pulls his wand out of his back pocket and a police-like red and blue light rotates at its tip. Then another sound terrifies them. This one the scream of dozens of students in fear.

"It's coming!" Justin snaps out and his monster hunting training, even if deficient, kicks in. "Let's go! We gotta keep it away!" He says already running away.

"Yeah, good luck with that! Let me know how it goes!" Alex shoots back.

In response, Justin immediately comes back and grabs her arm, then pulling her away with him.

When they get to the patio, Alex and Justin see the crowd of students and teachers running everywhere, and up in the sky, the hippogriff starting a dive against the people.

Thinking fast, Justin raises his wand and fires an energy ball to distract the animal, making it stop the attack. That buys just enough time for the people to empty the patio before the hippogriff starts another dive, this time against Justin and Alex.

The siblings hide back inside and the animal flies up again.

"Alex, we gotta find a way to trap it!" He yells.

Alex thinks for a moment. "I think I got an idea." She yells at Justin just before the animal lets out another screech, then points her wand to the middle of the patio. At her wave, she produces right there the main piece of her marvelous idea: a jar.

Justin glares at her. "SERIOUSLY!" He yells back, aggravated. He has seen her letting hippogriffs out of jars, but put them back inside is a whole new level.

"Don't start, alright? Can you freeze it or… hold it for a few seconds?" Alex yells her question to Justin.

"You better not tell me you're gonna throw the jar at it." He shouts.

"Shut up and do it!" Alex demands.

Justin looks at the hippogriff and waits for it to halt high in the sky preparing to dive for another attack. Then, in the right moment, he comes out pointing his wand at the animal, prepared to fire his attack… when the red and blue lights sparkle again breaking his focus on the animal, making him stare at it for a second. Another screech brings him back to the situation, and to the hippogriff in a steep dive to attack him.

"JUSTIN!" Alex screams for her brother in a fit of panic. Mimicking his action, she fires another energy ball trying to stop the attack. But her aim is not as good, forcing Justin to jump out of the way, avoiding the animal in the nick of time.

He looks up to see the hippogriff take off again, quickly flying up high to make another dive. Justin cannot waste another chance. He points his wand up and fires a spell that hits the animal with the precision expected from a monster hunter. The spell surrounds the hippogriff, trapping it in the sky above them. However, the animal still struggles. Justin holds his wand with both of his hands, fighting against it to keep the animal trapped. The spell Justin cast wasn't supposed to freeze it, merely holding it still long enough for Alex to… well… Justin is not sure, he just hopes she gets it right ...and fast.

Alex points her wand to the hippogriff and chants "That hippogriff may cause too much harm. Make it fit where it's safe. Put it back inside the jar." Her wand shines. Justin's spell breaks and the hippogriff immediately starts to shrink and move down to where the jar is.

"It's actually working!" Justin shouts in surprise for the successful spell Alex produced to trap the animal.

The spell squeezes the hippogriff through the opening and a lid jumps in to seal the jar.

"I can't believe it worked." Justin exclaims again. Who would have guessed she could pull something like this out.

"Don't be so surprised!" She tells him. "But I am surprised you didn't use your monster hunter mind technique!" She lifts her hand with all the fingers pointing away to the same direction.

"I think we can both agree that didn't work!" He responds a little deflated.

Then they hear a chorus of the students' voices happily cheering them for saving the school from the magical world creature, all of them slowly coming outside to surround them. Justin quickly walks to the jar and takes it before any clumsy unlucky student ends up breaking it and releasing the animal again.

Justin and Alex slowly make through the crowd to the inside of the castle while he pointlessly yells at the kids that they should get back to their dormitories and prepare to go to bed. When they get away from the commotion and are finally alone, Alex says. "Hey, what was up with that light thing on your wand? It almost got you killed!"

"I don't know. It was supposed to show when the school is under some threat, but not keep firing at any time. It might have some glitch."

"You think?" She retorts. "And what about this hippogriff? What was it doing here?"

"I think I know exactly where we can find answers to this." He claims.

"Ohhh, yeah! Professor FrankStein!" She accuses, again mispronouncing his name, on purpose of course.

"Uhm! … Actually, no. Stein's kind of afraid of hippogriffs. Something to do with them looking a lot like gargoyles." He muses for a second. "… And stop saying his name like this. It's not nice." Alex just shrugs. "Anyway… I think this one may have come from Fiendl's classroom." Justin explains.

Oh, right! It completely escaped Alex, somehow. The one she saw when she was picking ingredi… …Errr! …Never mind! "Then let's go get him!" She incites with fierceness.

"Not so fast. We're not gonna get anybody. Maybe it just escaped."

"Yeah, right!" She answers with distrust.

"The thing is we don't know how it escaped. Let's find that out first."

Alex gives him a very disdainful shrug.

Alex and Justin arrive at Fiendl's classroom. The doors are open but some kind of spell blocks the entrance. "Fiendl cast a silence spell to block noises from outside." Justin explains.

Alex looks at him, confused. "How d'you know?"

"Some teachers do that during study sessions. …And when you study enough, it gets easier to identify spells." Then he looks at Alex. "I mean 'you' very, very loosely."

"Shut up!" Alex retorts.

Justin steps through the door, ignoring the barrier, then Alex goes through after him. Some kids are still in the class, studying. They remain there, focused, unaware of the confusion that just transpired outside because of the spell. When Fiendl sees the two at the door, he gets up from his desk and crosses the room to meet them.

"Missing something?" Justin questions Fiendl, raising the jar.

"Yeah, Percy!" Alex acts tough.

Fiendl stares at the animal with confusion. "This cannot be my hippogriff." He then walks to his cabinets. "This is not the jar where mine is." He opens the one with live animals for ingredients, then finding the smashed glass on the shelf. "Oh! I guess this is the one!"

"We got your pet on the loose, attacking people outside the castle." Alex tells him.

Justin walks to the cabinet and drops the jar on the shelf just beside the broken glass. "Maybe you should take better care of the dangerous animals you keep in here, Professor!" He says with a somewhat accusatory tone.

"And, maybe, find a safer place to keep creature that can eat us." Alex takes on."Like, not in your cabinet."

"She is right!" Justin agrees.

"But, Sir, I am always careful with all the animals I possess. I have no idea how it could have escaped." He defends himself.

"I suggest you to find out, then." Justin says.

"What?!" Alex complains.

"I surely will investigate, Sir."

And Justin takes one final look at the students in the desks. "And the kids should be going to their dorms, already!" He tells, then he turns around and leaves, followed by Alex.

"So that's it? You're not gonna do anything? You're gonna leave up to him to find out what happened, the guy who owned the animal that escaped." Alex says with a clear disapproval of Justin's decision.

"Yup!" Justin answers.

"You're not even gonna consider that he may have let it loose himself?" She insists.

"Nope!"

"Yeah! Nice move!" Yes, that was pure sarcasm. However, Justin disregards it and just walks away, and he and Alex go separate ways.

Alex goes back to her classroom and finds a perfect position to drop the desk she has just acquired. That is, before a hippogriff on the loose almost ate Justin's head off.

Well, the day for Alex is far from being over. After seeing there is a whole new part of the castle she wasn't aware it existed, she had to check that out for herself. So, past the time all the students must go to bed, she goes out for another trip. She retraces her way back to the Library, going as sneaky as she can be. From there, she checks every closed room. Surprisingly, the doors are not locked with any kind of spell. Apparently Justin thought that normal locks would be enough to keep people away. Well, she is not just any people.

For her dismay, the rooms are not that exciting. Next to the Library, there is a small storage, then an empty classroom after that. And next, what appears to be a small reading room for teachers.

Then Alex gets to the part that called her attention the most. Big twin doors that certainly take to something awesome. The only problem is that this is the only room that seems to be properly locked. Alex quickly waves her wand and the doors open, just a gap big enough for Alex to squeeze herself through. Really, at this point, no one should be surprised that Alex turned out to be particularly good at opening locked doors.

Once inside, she waves her wand again and the lights come to life to illuminate the entire room, a giant ballroom still beautifully decorated and in good condition despite some dust that piles on the floor and over the furniture placed near the walls. No, Alex is not going to organize a ball, although a few plans already bubble in her mind as to how to use this incredible place.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - A class to show off

.

.

.

After meeting again for another lunch, Alex and Justin get ready to leave the dining hall. Half way to the door, Fiendl comes in and spots them right away.

"Sir?!" He calls out. The siblings stop to give him attention. "Miss Russo!" He compliments.

" _Percy!_ " Alex says, but not just a reply. More like mockery and accusation.

"I have some news to share." He simply goes on as if he didn't get her tone. "But first, let me acknowledge what an amazing spectacle it was seeing you two dealing with that hippogriff."

"Thank you! But…" Justin tries to make the man stop and get to the important part.

However, Fiendl continues. "It's all over the Wizard Web, already. You two have such an incredible synchrony."

"Hey! Percy…" Alex tries it this time, and still Fiendl seems to be in his own world.

Then he gapes at Justin. "Ohhh!" He interjects as something comes to him. "Full wizard siblings! I only imagine the kind of power this wields. And think about all this power in one single wizard…"

"FIENDL!" Justin shouts to bring the man out of his own head.

"Huh…?!" Fiendl gawks at Justin with a dumb face.

"You said you got news about something!?" Justin asks.

"Oh, yes!" Fiendl notices. "I may have a lead on the responsible for the hippogriff incident."

"What is it?" Justin asks.

"Well… You are aware of how other professors come to me for ingredients for potions, or every now and then they even take ingredients without telling me when I'm not around. And that is not unusual. But…" Fiendl says stepping closer to the siblings, and lowers his voice. "…this time I noticed a few odd ingredients missing in my ingredients' cabinet. I believe whoever took those was trying to make some stick-to-it powder…"

"Oh, REEEALLY!" Justin looks at Alex, with goggled, suggestive eyes. Alex guiltily purses her lips and scratches her ear.

"Yes!" Fiendl continues. "It is a very common prank amongst the kids."

Then Justin says, still staring at Alex. "I didn't know that. Did you know that… ALEX!"

"Uhm! …" She stammers. "Nope! Not really."

Fiendl takes on. "Well, maybe that can help in finding who did this."

"Alright! I will see where that leads. Thank you, Professor." Justin answers. "Alex, can I talk to you in private?" He finishes and Fiendl walks away, into the dining hall.

"We can talk right here, where there are lots of witnesses."

Justin takes her arm and pulls her out of the cafeteria. "That was your fault." He accuses once they are far enough from the door.

"Oh, come on, Justin!"

"No! You stole the ingredients from him. All because of a lame prank of getting me stuck on stuff."

"Yeah, I know!" She laments. "It's kinda hard to top getting hired to teach here!"

"Would you be serious for one moment? Do you see how many people could've got hurt because of that?"

"What?!" She protests. "Don't you think I would be careful after our last time with a hippogriff? When I left, the jar was intact. The hippogriff was very tamed. It even got back to sleep before I left."

"But it might've escaped after that because you got it agitated." Justin explains.

"I'm telling you. I didn't upset it. And, really? Agitated? Who even talks like that?" She can always insert an insult.

"Cult people!" He only gets more aggravated. "Look, I want you to make a report of what happened. I'll have to tell something to the Safety Board. I don't care what you're gonna do, but I want it done by tomorrow. I have a feeling I'll have to review it before I turn it up."

"Fine! I'll do a report on what happened the best way I can. Just don't expect a textbook-long thing. You know I hate books."

"And that's how I know I'll have to review it." Justin finally turns around to leave Alex alone.

Later, Alex teaches her class just in the beginning of the afternoon. What!? There is no way she would take a class early in the morning … Or before lunch, for that matter. Justin simply complied, because whatever he had to hear while they argued over this would happen every morning if Alex didn't get what she wanted.

The students start coming in, and even before they have the chance to settle, Alex stands up and walks to them. Instead of taking on with her lessons, she urges the kids to come after her out of the classroom. They look at each other, confused for a moment, and then rush outside, where Alex waits for them. They sneak around the hallways, careful not to call any attention as Alex instructed. They get to the same pair of giant doors Alex recently discovered, in a part of the castle where the students are usually not allowed to go.

Alex lifts her wand toward the doors and they open. She enters the big ballroom and the kids follow her in, gazing at the amazing place they have never known about. The doors close behind them. There are not any balls in this place these days, but people were not ready to get rid of the room.

Well they are here because Alex decided she should demonstrate what real spells can do. And she wanted to go big. Actually, she wanted to show off a little bit.

She starts by using simple spells that any kid would know, but using them in skilled and powerful ways they probably have never seen. For example, even using a levitation spell can be tricky. You would know if you had ever tried to use levitation to make a key fit into the keyhole, unlock a drawer, take what you want, lock the drawer back up and put the key back where it was, all because you couldn't just flash the lightsaber out of the drawer because Justin put a spell blocker on it… …Err!… Anyway… It can be tricky. So, to show what this spell is capable of doing, she makes an evolution levitating several things she finds in the room at once.

After, she steps up a notch by pointing her wand to the floor; a wall of fire rises in the middle of the room, well above their heads. The fire sways under Alex's control as she moves her wand around. Then she points it down and the fire subsides.

Next, she points her wand up. A fog blurs the ceiling, getting thicker until it turns into a cloud, a real storm cloud. After a couple of seconds, lightnings furiously strike in the center of the cloud, where it is thicker and darker.

Alex turns around to the kids. "And that's also a good idea to use on your brother when he pisses you off."

"Uhm…" One girl sheepishly raises her hand. "Isn't it a little too much to throw millions of Volts at his head?"

"Huh?!" Alex thinks for a second. "No. I actually mean the rain. But I don't wanna flood in here. These new sandals cost a fortune." She looks down at her feet for a moment, lost for a bit while admiring her sandals. "Anyway!"

And finally, Alex turns around again, preparing for her last show off. One more time she lifts her wand toward the center of the room and the tip shines. A light breeze starts, and it quickly becomes stronger. Then a small cone takes shape from under the cloud, still at the ceiling, and slowly descents. The wind hits them harder and harder as the swirl comes down toward the floor.

Then, just in front of them, the thin swirl of air becomes darker and larger as the wind gets stronger, until it turns into an actual tornado.

Suddenly, something starts to go wrong. There is something in the wind, something hitting them that hurts really bad. It feels like a windstorm in a beach, with sand hurting their skin. The wind feels like coming from everywhere. They can barely keep their eyes open. All the students feel it, the same as Alex. Really, she chose a bad day to be wearing sandals.

Alex drops her wand to break the spell and the tornado starts to dissipate. The wind slowly fades and she manages to open her eyes in time to see the dust settling down. What the hell was that? Slacking on the clean-up duties is okay, but this is already too much. It is bad enough that the castle is falling apart, but now it's crumbling down too? Hell, no!

In his office, Justin enjoys one of the few moments of quietude he has. He reads a book while repeatedly dipping the tea bag in his mug filled with hot water.

"Hey…" Alex angrily barges in. Justin startles, the heavy book almost escaping his grasp and the tea bag getting lost inside the mug. Damn, the day was going so well.

"…You should do something about the cleaning in this place. Did you see the amount of dust piling all around? It's ruining my new sandals." She also couldn't ignore the dust on every corner of the hallways as she made her way there.

Justin takes a deep breath, recomposing. "Yeah, we had a problem with the cleaning staff. Fiendl is working it out." He starts trying to recover the tea bag with a spoon.

"Good!" Alex replies. "Cause if I have to throw these sandals out because of it I'm gonna blame it on you. … And this dust is getting everywhere in my feet. It's so annoying." She grunts, lifting her foot and slapping off some of the dust.

"Why don't you put on some boots?" Justin suggests. "You love them."

Alex looks at him, open-mouthed. "And ruin an innocent pair of boots? What kind of monster are you?" She says in a hurt tone, then turns around and walks away.

Yes, Justin does ask Fiendl about it, but he doesn't have much to offer, as the negotiations are still in development.

Much later, already at night, Justin comes to the dining hall and sees Alex in an isolated table far back in the room, absentmindedly doodling something on her big sketchbook.

Justin crosses the room to meet her. "Alex!" He calls her attention in a light tone.

She looks at him to finally notice his presence and gives him a smile. "Hey, bro!"

"Did you finish the report on the Hippogriff attack?"

"Yup! I have it right here!" She flips back a few pages of her sketchbook while Justin watches, confused.

"Here!" She rips one page out and gives it to Justin.

The page has a representation of the animal perfectly sketched in soft pencil, and a footnote that reads "This hippogriff attacked us. We trapped it in a jar." Alex's sign just beside it.

"Alex! I can't present this to the Safety Board."

"But I nailed the drawing, didn't I? Come on, admit it."

Although somewhat annoyed, Justin looks down to the art in his hand. "Yeah, it's pretty good…" He gives in, concentrating on it. "…You even got the dark spot on the forehead." He calmly says contemplating it for a moment, scratching his own forehead, impressed. "But I still need you to describe what happened!" Justin goes back to his annoyed best.

"You got it right there on the bottom." She points it out about the footnote she left.

"I'm gonna need a little bit more than that."

She purses her lips and scrunches up her forehead in an annoyed expression. Does he seriously have to put down every great idea she has? But, after a second of consideration, she looks up at him, mouth hanging open and finger pointing straight at him. Justin recognizes in dread her "best idea" face.

"I can make it like one of your comic books, but make it cool!" She tells him.

"They are graphic novels. And they ARE cool!" He answers, offended. "And what I meant is that I need you to write down everything that happened."

"Then you got the wrong girl. Harper is the one who's good at writing. I'm good at drawing." Of course she would try.

"I mean it, Alex. I need you to write down what happened." He says with a more stern tone. And it still sounds like pleading.

"Fine! … I'll have something for you tomorrow." She gives in.

"Thank you!" He puts a lot of emphasis on it. "Wait! Does that mean you're gonna WRITE the report?"

"Uhm!… There might be some writing involved!" She tells him, but her suspicious face tells him a lot more.

"You're not gonna do what I'm asking, are you?"

"Nope! But, don't worry. You're gonna have something to show."

Justin is really tired. He so doesn't want to be doing this right now. So, he just gives up and hands the drawing back to Alex, waiting to fight this battle another time.

"Nah! Keep it. You could frame that. This way you can remember another time I saved your butt." She gives Justin a childish, naughty smile, just to tease him a little more.

He stares at her, deadpan. He is not going to play this game right now. He just turns around and leaves, taking the drawing with him. And that would be another win for her, at least in her opinion.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Still not following the rules

 **A/N** : Please, hold back from looking at the phrase in all-caps.

.

.

.

New day comes and Justin has a lot of work to do, mostly updating some of the school's administrative business. He has some meetings with teachers; he calls some of the school's suppliers after lunch; then he makes inspections around the building, especially things related to the hippogriff attack, such as preparing the school for more events like that. Other than that, the day goes on pretty smoothly. He is happy that he has been having a productive day so far, without losing time with distractions or incidents and…

WHERE THE HELL IS ALEX?!

Only now comes to him that he has not seen Alex yet today. Probably it was his desire to have some peace that kept his mind from noticing it, the wish that he didn't have to deal with her mischiefs every ten minutes.

Where is she? He covered the entire school during his round of inspections, and she just weren't anywhere. Now he is worried. Arriving back to his office, his breathing is starting to get deeper. Anxiety attack coming up.

He could call her through the speaker system… Unless it is a prank for him to use it, then something happens when he touches the microphone. Fine, maybe not! See, he is not only getting worried, but also paranoid.

"Okay! Just breathe. Calm down. You are a wizard, you can use magic! Yes, magic."

Justin pulls his wand and stares at it. And stares at it. More staring. Damn, he can't even think of anything to do.

Teleport! He can flash Alex right in his office. Yeah!… Uhm!… What if she is in the bathroom or something? … Whatever, he is getting desperate. He lifts his wand. Well, better with eyes closed, just to be sure. So he waves his wand to bring her in. … Nothing!

He grunts! Alex is under some kind of protective spell. It really annoys Justin that she learned how to use protection spells.

He at least has to find out where she is. But spells are not going to work, obviously. …The crystal balls! He looks around. Dammit! He lent the one he kept in the office to Professor Stumbler after his went missing. And then he forgot to take it back because 'someone' kept him busy and worried the entire time.

He is so out of ideas! How can he find Alex, now?!

Yeah, about her! During those last two days before the beginning of classes, Justin tried to teach Alex, among other things, what she isn't allowed to do… Like taking the kids outside of the castle without permission… Just like she is doing… Right NOW.

Alex comes in through the giant front doors of the entrance hall believing that the darkness of the night would hide their sneaky comeback. She and the kids step in, as silent and careful as they can, until the doors close behind them. No, they shouldn't do that. They have just been caught.

Justin steps out from the hallway with a very mad face. He shoots a scolding glare straight at Alex the entire time as he walks toward her.

He stops in front of Alex "You kids go to your dorms." Justin tells the students. "I need to talk to your professor."

"Oooooo!" The students choir the shame chant.

"HEY! Hey!" Alex yells at them, making them stop. "Remember that I'm the one who writes down your grades."

All the students go silent and lower their heads. Yeah, they know by now that Alex would probably carry out her threats. So, they start walking away.

"Let's go to my office, Professor Russo!" He tells her, gritting his teeth, then turns around and walks back to where he came from.

"Yup! Professor Russo is not a good call." Alex tells herself and starts following her brother. Well, that if he doesn't fire her from the "sister" position as well after firing her from the school.

Justin doesn't look back a single time until he gets to his office. He holds the door open waiting for Alex to get in.

"What were you thinking?" He yells even before the door shuts completely. "You can't take kids outside without permission."

"Oh, come on, Justin! We were in the village, in the wizard amusement park. It was a great practice for them."

"It doesn't matter. I told you. We have rules here. You can't just go and do what you want whenever you want. What if something happened to one of the kids? What if you missed one?"

"I counted all nineteen of them before we came back!" Alex replies.

Justin looks at her with dread in his face. "You have twenty students in that class!" He yells at her.

"I know." She clarifies with a smile. "One kid is as nerdy as you and didn't wanna go without your permission. I just wanted to see you sweat." Alex laughs.

Justin takes in one big gulp of air, and lets it out very slowly. He rubs his forehead. "This is not funny, Alex." He takes a moment in silence, walking away from her, to the couch. "One of the reasons this school exists is to teach kids to be responsible while using magic. I don't even know what you're trying to teach them."

"I'm just showing them that they are not gonna learn everything only in the school. That there are a lot of things to learn out there."

"But, at the same time, you are showing them exactly the opposite of responsibility when you go around doing whatever you want." He takes a big breath and looks straight at her.

"Justin, they are kids. They learn a lot more when they're having fun than when they're stuck in a classroom listening to someone babbling a bunch of 'not-to's'."

"And having fun means being irresponsible?"Justin tries, though losing some of his resolution.

"It means trying out things and seeing what happens!" She explains her view.

"And how is that supposed to teach anything? What is going to happen when things get beyond their knowledge?"

"Come on! Tell me you didn't learn anything with all the times things went haywire when we were kids?" She points out.

"Yeah! How to live in fear and deal with panic attacks!?" Justin shoots.

"You know what I mean!" Alex answers.

"Just wanted to make a point." He replies, taking a long frustrated sigh. "You're never gonna do things my way, are you?" Justin asks with a whining tone.

"Nope!"

"Then why did you come here, anyway? To make my life miserable?" Justin asks.

"No!… Because my dumb older brother was too afraid that I would never stop pranking him. So he stopped visiting me and stopped butting in on everything I do because he thinks it's wrong, and wasn't there to fix things when I screwed up and I missed it." She tells in one single breath, then stares at him for a couple seconds as her expression softens. "And I missed you."

Justin looks up at her with a kind smile that lasts only a couple of seconds. "And you missed pranking me?!" He completes, losing his soft expression.

"And I missed pranking you!" She gives him a kind, childish, worm smile and he replies with the same, even if shaking his head.

"Alex, we are adults now."

"So what? Does that mean we cannot have fun anymore?"

"It's not fun for me!" He exclaims.

"Well, your idea of fun is spending a day doing boring stuff… like reading those stupid books that have no pictures …with a cup of tea. I had to do something that was fun for me."

"As long as you keep your 'fun' away from the students." Justin implies. "I have other things to worry about."

"Ugh! Why are you so worried, anyway?" She asks, annoyed by his constant pointless preoccupation.

"I'm worried because something could've happened to the kids outside the protection of the castle!" He tells her trying to make it sound obvious.

"Like what? One of them fall on his face, lose a tooth, try to put it back on with magic and end up with a frozen face?" Well, that feels very specific!

"No, I don't think they would beat Max on that one." Oh!

"Then, what?" She still wants to understand.

Justin takes a deep breath. Then, silence. Whatever is bothering him, he obviously doesn't feel comfortable with sharing. "Look, there's a reason why I didn't show up back at home so often, okay!" He starts.

"Why, then?"

Justin hesitates for a moment. "We… We had an old power transfer machine stored here in the school. It was a relic, a hundred years old, used here before this place was turned into a school, it wasn't even working anymore. We had it locked in a room inside the dungeon. One day it simply disappeared." Justin explains.

"What happened to it?"

"I don't know. I investigated for weeks. I used all the free time I had. Even Juliet came over to help, for days in a role. But in the end all I could do was to report that it was missing and move on." He tells in a sad confession.

"So you just gave up? That doesn't sound like you!"

"I haven't. Juliet and I kept investigating in any time we had… But I still have nothing." He looks up at her, sad and concerned at the same time. "See? The person who did this is still out there. Maybe it was a parent who had access to the school, or maybe any staff who was overlooked by the council, but I don't know. And he may still be around, waiting to do something."

"So you think that person's going to attack here, the school?"

"That's the thing. I don't know. He might." Justin answers with a clear worried tone.

Alex thinks for a moment."Okay!" She looks at him with a tender glance. "I'm not going outside anymore." Alex agrees. She doesn't really like it, but she also doesn't want to put anyone in danger.

"Thank you."

"Can I go now? Taking care of those kids is really tiring. I'm totally beat. I wanna go to bed." She whines.

"Okay! And no more going outside! You promised!" He insists.

"Fine" Alex complies and turns to the door.

"Wait! Just one more thing." Justin calls and Alex turns back to him. "What protection spell did you use to hide yourself? Your tracking signal was so weak that I had to bunch up most of the crystal balls we had to track you. It took me the whole evening running after them."

"Oh!" Alex exclaims. She lifts her foot and pulls her wand from her boot to show him the hot cheetos bag, as it seems, wrapped around the handle.

"Are you kidding me!?"

"Uncle Kelbo taught me this. Turns out this is aluminum and plastic in one thing." She laughs. "So great when people already invented exactly what you need!" She turns around and exits the office, leaving Justin completely baffled. And also worried about how many other people know about this, especially students. Worries just never end!

Alex is finally heading to her room, exhausted and longing for her bed. However, before she gets there, she hears steps. It's so late, no one else should be out right now. Sure, not even her, but, whatever. Alex hides behind a corner and tries to take a peek of the delinquent who is breaking the rules.

"Hey! That's Professor Fiendl!" Again! She just sees him rubbing his hands clean and looking around in a very suspicious manner. Hmmm… Carrying something dirty? Fiendl slinks away, his steps still noisy enough to hear.

No one knows it like her, you only act this sneaky when you are doing something wrong. Alex walks to where Fiendl was and takes a good look around, but there is nothing. Walls, ceiling, floor… and a lot of dust… all of it normal, and nothing stands out. What was he doing?

Since she can't find anything, Alex goes back to her room. She takes a quick shower and gets ready for bed. She lies down trying to imagine what Fiendl was doing but can't get anywhere. Justin is definitely gonna hear about this tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - A new crowd shuffles in

.

.

.

Next day, when Alex wakes up, she quickly gets ready for the day and comes down for lunch. What?! This is early for her standards. Try having your ten hours of beauty sleep and be up early in the morning.

Anyway, Justin doesn't come to the dining hall for lunch. And, when Alex is done, she doesn't have time to go after him because she has a class early in the afternoon. And it is a long class, with several of the things she struggled herself to do while growing up, and now it is up to her to teach.

When the class is over, Alex finally has the time to go after Justin. He has to hear about what she saw, everything about Fiendl's late night strolls… Especially now that she knows there might be someone with evil intentions around.

She goes out to find him, and after looking in his office, in the teacher's lounge and then in the dining hall again - no, she knew she probably wouldn't find him there; she did find a piece of their awesome brownie, though - she finally finds him in the way to the entrance hall.

"Justin!" Alex shouts the second she glimpses him at far. "Gotta talk to you!" She says, walking to him. Justin waits for her, there is a tone of urgency in her voice that keeps him interested. "There something I gotta tell you. I've been seeing…"

She is interrupted when Justin pulls his wand from his back pocket and those red and blue lights are on again. These damn red and blue lights. The siblings stare at the wand as it sends the warning, meaning something bad is happening in the school.

"Now, what!?" Alex whines. She has already forgotten about what she was going to say.

"It's that all the time, now!" Justin complains. "We gotta go check that." He turns around, ready to leave.

"I don't want to!" Alex whines.

Justin stops and turns back, glaring at her. "Alex…" He forces through his gritting teeth. "Let's go!"

"Fine!" Alex grunts and follows him.

Soon they start hearing once again the commotion of people reacting to some threat, and the scared voices lead them to the entrance hall. Once there, they see the kids bunching up in the hall and all their eyes aiming to the door that takes to the patio. They run outside and find the absolute last thing they would expect in a school. A swarm of zombies come in through the doors of the castle.

"It's a zombie outbreak!" Justin shouts.

"Thank you, captain obvious! I can see that!" Alex retorts.

"Who opened the doors? They shouldn't be able to get through them. Someone must've opened it!"

"Can we concentrate on the obvious first?" Alex points out as the Zombies slowly come closer. "We could deal with a few zombies, but that many?"

"I know! It'll be impossible to control them if they get close to the students." Justin completes.

The zombies are getting close, already occupying half the patio and more coming in every second. Sure, they are not all that fast, but they are already too many to be controlled.

"I have an idea!" Justin exclaims. "Remember what happened when you opened that black hole inside the SubStation?"

"Come on, Justin! I don't think that bringing Mom here to yell at them will make them go away!" Alex shouts back.

Justin gawks at her, dumbfounded. "I mean actually open up a black hole!" He roars in his best aggravated tone.

"Ohhh! Yeah, that could work!" Alex casually muses.

"Just do it!" Justin demands.

"Fine!" Alex pulls out her wand and points it to the middle of the patio.

"Just send them somewhere they can stay until the specialists can deal with them." Justin tells her.

"I know that!" She gnarls back, annoyed. At the wave of her wand, a small black hole forms exactly in the middle of the patio, right under a couple of unlucky zombies that fall right in. However, the rest of them simply walk around it as if it didn't portray any danger.

"Hold it!" Justin shouts. "I'm gonna try to push them in!" He steps ahead again with his wand up ready to do his part to save the school when a clap of thunder resonates above, and one more time the red and blue lights get in his way. "Are you kidding me?!" He shouts. "That's it! I'm definitely getting rid of this thing!"

"Wait, I got a better idea!" Alex is there to get his back.

She holds her wand with both hands, clutching it firmly, and concentrating with fierce. Then, with a brighter flash on her wand, the black hole grows on the ground. The zombies around it start falling in by the bunch as it grows faster than the sluggish creatures can escape. As the black hole becomes a large hollow, a noticeably strong gust of wind picks up toward it.

Just as it happened before in the ballroom with the kids, Alex feels something punishing her skin, the same dust that took up the ballroom also accumulating out there. A clear swirl of dust forms as it dives into the whole.

Impressed by Alex's skilful spell, Justin watches the invading creatures disappear, one by one falling down the black hole until only a couple of zombies are left in a corner, trapped, as the black hole takes up the patio almost entirely.

"Hey! Little help, there!?" Alex yells at Justin.

"Oh, yeah!" Justin gives a quick wave on his wand toward the zombies and they are pulled to the hole.

That is it! No more zombies left. Justin waves his wand again to close the doors, isolating the castle. Alex draws her wand and the black hole quickly shrinks until it completely vanishes.

"Nice work!" Justin tells Alex.

"Admit it! You're happy that I'm here!" Alex teases.

"Well, I'm happy I can put your abilities to a good use."

"You know, I could've taught you that spell." Alex tells him.

"Thanks, but I prefer to focus on more constructive things, like making a black hole out of control disappear."

"But it was constructive. Did you see all the dust being sucked in? It's much cleaner now." She looks at him with a mocking grin.

"That's not exactly my idea of being constructive."

"Well, let's agree to disagree."

Justin buffs, shaking his head. "Fine! Just one thing. Where exactly did the black hole send them?"

"The only place that came to me was the Wizard City Hall." Alex says with some disdain.

Justin slowly turns to her, on his face something like panic, or anger, or fear, or whatever it is that he feels when she does these kinds of things that always blow up on his back. "What?" He probably wanted to shout it, but his gritting teeth didn't allow it.

"Sorry! I didn't know what else to do. But look at it this way. Who would you call to deal with the zombies?" She asks.

"I would call..." Justin start angrily but he stops and thinks for a second. "...the competent authorities at the City Hall."

"See?! We simply jumped a few steps. I'm sure they will treat the ones that still can be healed and take the others to… …wherever they came from." Alex's reasoning always baffles Justin.

"I'm pretty sure they would like some heads up before getting swamped by an army of zombies."

"Eh! I'm sure they know what to do."

Justin turns around, running his fingers through his hair and starts walking to the entrance hall. The group of students and teachers, all holding fearful stares at Justin, wait for instructions. "Okay! The zombies are gone for now." He says while walking in, followed by Alex. "Professor Stein, accompany the students to the dining hall. The others, we're gonna inspect the school in case any zombies found another way in. And I don't want anyone outside until we clear the area around. If anyone see Professor Fiendl, tell him to look for me. Let's go, now" He comes near Alex and grabs her arm. "You stay with me. We've had enough problems for one day." He tells her in a low tone.

"What!? So not fair!" Alex answers while Justin pulls her away.

Things happen as Justin said, and when they declare the school free of zombies, he clears the kids for dinner.

And it is in the dining hall that Fiendl finds Justin.

"Sir, I have news." He tells with some urgency.

"Any word from the Council about the zombies?" Justin asks.

"Yes! And I believe I know where the outbreak began." He replies. "Many of the zombies were people from the village. So I investigated and found out that the amusement park is setting up a zombie attraction."

Justin stares at him for a moment. "You mean… there were Zombies… in the park!?"

"That is what I just said, yes!" Fiendl confirms. "I believe that some of them must have escaped and that begun the incident. But I still have to confirm that. And this should be my next step."

"Alright! Thank you!" Justin replies. "And keep me informed."

"I certainly will, Sir." And Fiendl leaves to continue with his task of investigating the incident.

Justin grunts in anger. Why? Because something just crossed his mind and, if he is right, dealing with this will be… well, he is not going to like it.

Alex doesn't come down for dinner. She prefers to stay in her room and have breakfast for dinner as her father likes to have every now and then. Actually, what she really wanted was to watch a movie that was on, but then she couldn't remember the spell that makes dinner, and she was too lazy to go look for it. But, hey, she remembers the breakfast spell! It's not the worst way to end this day.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - Not Justin's favorite lunch plan.

.

.

.

It's finally Saturday. So, no classes today. Still, very early, Justin is up taking his breakfast. He didn't exactly have a good night of sleep after last night, especially after he got confirmation on Fiendl's suspicions.

In the middle of the morning, Alex walks around the hallways, looking for Justin. Well, he wasn't in his office, so where else can she find him?

Justin talks to Professor Fiendl in the teachers' lounge, and that's where Alex finally finds him. "Hey! Justin!" She calls him from the door almost in a whisper.

"Alex! Great! I need to talk to you." Justin tells her with a hint of urgency, coming to her.

"Okay!" She tells him, pulling out her wand. "Let's find a better place to talk." She completes, lifting her wand and waving it before Justin has the change to protest.

And they are back home, in their parents' living room.

"Alex, what are we doing here?" He asks, surprised and a little angry.

"Mom made me bring you here for lunch."

"Justin, is that you?" Teresa's voice comes from upstairs, for Justin's complete agony.

And Alex yells back, "Yeah, Mom. It's us."

They can hear their mother's rushed steps coming down the stairs to meet them. Then she goes straight to Justin and hugs him. "My babies, it's been so long." She lets him go and slaps him on the arm. "Don't you avoid your mother ever again!" She shouts.

"Sorry, Mom. I was really busy." He tries to defend himself, only to receive a mad glare from Teresa.

Then she turns to Alex and hugs her. "Thank you for bringing him."

"No problem! I'm in for doing anything against his will." Teresa and Alex both laugh.

"Well, I'm getting the lunch started. You guys wanna help?" Teresa asks.

"Heyyy!" Alex protests right away. "I did what I was asked. He's the one in trouble here. He deserves to punished."

"What? So not fair!" Justin complains.

"You're right, Alex." Teresa says taking his arm. "This way we get to spend time together." She starts pulling him away.

Alex laughs and waves goodbye as Justin looks back at her, shooting her a mad stare while their mother drags him to the kitchen.

Alex retreats to her room. Maybe she would have enjoyed seeing Justin suffer, but she is not in the mood to listen her mother babbling. For a while, she talks to Harper on the phone, then to Mason, then she takes a look on the new issue of her art magazine. Finally she comes back down to find lunch almost ready.

While she helps setting up the table, Max comes up to find out how the lunch is going. "Mom, lunch better get ready soon, or Dad will get us out of ham for the night shift."

"Maxy!" Alex runs to him and hugs him tight.

"So you two actually came!" Max tells Alex. Then he pulls back from her and gives her a careful look, then to the kitchen and around the apartment, as if looking for something. "Where's the dessert you were going to bring?"

Alex gives him a narrow stare. "What dessert?"

"You told Mom that, if you brought Justin here, it was gonna frost his muffin!" Max explains.

"No …Max!" Alex grunts. "That's just a figure of speech. …It's like saying that he would fly off the handle if I did it." She explains with clear annoyance.

"Ohhhh! So it's gonna be a lunch AND a show. Great!" He turns around and goes to the table.

Alex's eyes revolve in disbelief. Really, by now she shouldn't be surprised by anything coming from him.

"Max!?" Teresa calls him. "Go back down and tell your father we're done."

"Sure, Mom!" Max runs back down to the SubStation to call Jerry. Believe it or not, all the changes the three siblings made to the family business worked out so well that now they have people to take care of it during their lunch. Not to mention the success of the new menu, with Max's stupid dumpster-style sandwiches that somehow are people's favorites.

And not long after, Max and Jerry come up.

"Alex! Justin!" Jerry calls his kids when he comes in the living room.

"Daddy!" Alex yells with her common "daddy's little girl" way. She rushes to hug him, followed by Justin.

They stand back and Jerry looks at his both kids. "My two wizard kids, professors at WizTech." He says with a hint of pride. "So, how is that working for ya?" He asks jocosely, staring at them with a mocking grin.

"-Great! -Terribly!" Alex and Justin answer a split-second apart.

Alex looks at Justin for a second then back at Jerry. "And it's even better now!" She says in a laugh then walks away to the table.

"She does everything I ask her not to do." Justin complains to Jerry with a not satisfied face.

"Look…" Jerry calls them. "You two are adults now. It's past the time for you to learn how to work your differences out. … ON YOUR OWN!" He accentuates and walks away to take his place at the table.

"How can we if everything is just fine for her?" Justin complains to himself, then taking his place at the table.

"Like…" Justin continues. "Because of her, now all the incident reports to the Safety Board have to be turned up in form of comic strips!" He complains, making Alex laugh at him. "This is not funny, Alex!" He tells her.

"It will be when you try to make one!" She explains smiling.

The five of them have an amazing lunch, carried by stories about what they missed at both WizTech and back home. Alex even shows the picture of Justin stuck on the book, proud of her achievement.

Then Max breaks a moment of silence during dessert as he asks. "So, when are you guys gonna do that flying show?"

"MAX!" Alex, Justin and Teresa shout at the same time.

Later, Jerry and Max go back to the SubStation and Teresa keeps Justin close, just a small payback for not showing up regularly.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 - Serious Talk - Kind of.

.

.

.

Well, something has been bothering Alex. She didn't notice it was happening for a while, but it is very clear now. It progressed unbeknownst to her, this serious menace to her world. She doesn't even know how she missed it, but this will be solved right now.

Alex flashes herself into the lair. Instead of showing up right in the middle of the room, she appears in the concealed corner where the door is. She could have come the long way, coming down the stairs and through the SubStation. But then her father would have seen her and forced her to cover a shift.

Alex peeks into the lair. No one is in, so she walks to the shelf with the books of spells, she knows there is one here with the perfect spells to solve it. One by one, she searches the book she needs, and finds it on the middle shelf. With some struggle, she pulls the book out and brings it to the reading stand. She flips a few pages to the summary and runs her finger down the chapters.

"Here!" She states with excitement. "Meals and Dishes. …Page 347." She reads and turns over a block of pages, then a few more … Meals and Dishes… Full Meals - Dinner… "Hah! Got you!" Alex takes her phone from her back pocket and takes a picture of the page, and does that for any other page ahead where she finds her favorite dishes.

What! It really bothered her when she realized she couldn't remember spells to make dinner. This is not happening again.

And after a few minutes going over the various dishes available, "Found you!" Justin's voice breaks Alex's concentration on the book. "Got something important to talk to you." He sternly states, coming into the lair.

Alex closes the book in front of her. "So, Mom finally let go of you?" She asks, stepping away from the stand where the book is.

"She started working a shift just now." He tells, curiously eyeing her suspicious behavior. Let's be honest. Alex, all over a book, it is always a suspicious behavior.

"Doing some ' _research_ '?" He asks her, walking to the stand.

"Yuh!" She shortly answers trying not to give Justin too much.

"Looking for some school material?" He stops in front of the book. "Or maybe… PRANK MATERIAL…" He waves his wand at the book and it opens on the last viewed page.

"Meals and Dishes?" He reads on the page, dejected. Okay, either Justin is wrong or should start worrying about what he eats, he thinks.

"Yeah! Dangerous, right?" Alex mocks him, with a lot of sarcasm.

"Whatever! We have to talk about your behavior in the school. It stepped beyond any boundaries. You've put the entire school in danger." Justin complains.

"What?" She protests. "One small incident where I'm… slightly… connected to something bad, and suddenly I'm all that's wrong in the school?"

"ONE small incident?" He replies. "I think you're forgetting a few things there."

"Oh, yeah?! Like what?"

"Well, let's start with how you got the job."

"Oh, come on. You're just butthurt because you didn't have a say on that." She shoots back.

"You keep pranking me, which shows you have no respect for me." He continues.

"Pfff! Never had, anyway! Why would I start now?" She sits on the chair in front of the center table.

Justin clenches his fists and angrily purses his lips with a grunt. "Because now I'm the headmaster of the school!?"

"Meh!" She shrugs. "Still just my nerdy older brother." He hates this sly smile on her.

Justin tries to control himself, taking a big inhale and letting it out slowly. He looks at Alex again, and continues. "Anyway…" He slowly pushes through his teeth. "You completely disregard the rules of the school."

Alex looks at him, confused. "Does that mean I don't care about the rules?" She sincerely asks him. "Because, then, you're totally right." She completes, smiling.

"Yes! And I mean that, again, one of your little moments of 'let's have fun'…", his shrill imitation of Alex's voice remarking her common careless behavior, "…ended up becoming another threat to WizTech. But I shouldn't be surprised. Your behavior always turns out being dangerous."

"What are you talking about? What 'another threat'?" She asks, honestly lost.

"The zombies!" Justin shortly answers, staring at her.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"Well, you're not gonna be surprised to know they came from the wizard amusement park near the castle… which you had visited just before." Justin finally discloses.

"What? Wait! You're thinking I had something to do with the breakout?" Alex asks, aggrieved.

"Yeah! That's pretty much it!" He confirms.

"No, Justin. There weren't any zombies in the park!" She protests.

"Yeah, there were. The park was setting up an attraction with zombies, so they had a few in there."

"I never saw that!" Alex affirms. "And more, there weren't any incidents with the kids. They were with me the whole time."

"Fiendl told me the zombies were in a secured area. You wouldn't even know something happened." Justin informs her.

"That… guy again!" She complains. "He's always making me look bad!" Then something clicks in Alex's brain. "Wait! Why is he always making me look bad?" She muses.

"You didn't really need much help in that department!" Justin points out.

"No! Justin, hear me out. Think about the hippogriff. Why put them in jars if it was that easy to escape from it?" She asks.

"It's not!" Justin shoots back.

"So why would Fiendl suggest that I had anything to do with it? Like… just 'cause the hippogriff got upset after I opened the cabinet? That doesn't make any sense!"

"You mean you never messed with it?" Justin asks.

"Of course not! That's what I've been trying to tell you. And Fiendl would know all that! So why would he suggest that one thing had anything to do with the other?"

"Uhm! …I don't know!" Justin answers.

"And the zombies. If it had anything to do with me and the kids, why it took so long for the people from the park to notice?"

"Yeah! Actually that was bothering me, too. They are slow, but it wouldn't take a day for them to climb up the hill to the castle." Justin tells.

"What does make sense is that they escaped a long time after we left the park… because someone else let them out." Alex stares at Justin with defying intensity.

"Or…" Justin emphasizes, as if it only hit him now, "…since they are slow, it took them a long time to find the breach." Justin arguments back.

"Urrgh! Would you stop trying to blame it all on me and try to get someone else on the spot for a change?"

"It's hard when it was exactly after you arrived that my wand wouldn't stop sending warning signals!" Justin rants.

"That's right! The warning signals!" Alex gapes at him, as she realizes another important thing. "Doesn't it look weird that your wand kept sending warnings even when we were already dealing with the problem?"

"Well, maybe every time you got near some trouble, the wand freaked out like 'Oh, no! It just got worse!'."

"Funny!" She replies, shooting a deadly glare. "But I'm serious!"

"Well… Yeah!… But it could be just a glitch." He reasons. "And, sometimes, it goes off because of something small. Like about a month ago, when a potion went wrong and a cloud of it spread around a part of the castle. It made us close that part until we were sure it wasn't anything dangerous and could be cleaned up. But it wasn't exactly an attack to the school."

"Really?" Alex asks, pensive.

And Justin completes. "Yeah! We found out that the potion was…"

"Justin, shut up! I'm trying to think here." Alex shouts. "That was about a month ago? You mean about the same time that power transfer machine disappeared?"

"Yeah!" Justin gives her a suspicious stare.

"Let me see!" Alex interjects. "A potion that went wrong when someone stole the power transfer machine." She puts some more mental power into it. "Then there was the hippogriff attack… And the last one was the zombie outbreak."

"Alright! You lost me?"

"Listen. You're right. A potion that went wrong would not be a threat to the school. Then what was the wand warning you about?"

"You mean it was about the machine?"

"Yes!" She affirms with certainty. "And more. I think every one of those attacks were just distractions from something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But I know who's responsible for all of those. I think Fiendl did it."

"Oh, come on, Alex!"

"No, Justin! Just hear me out. You said it was specifically a POTION that went wrong just before you noticed that the machine had disappeared. Who else would know the best way to make a potion go wrong. Then the hippogriff escaped. From where? The potions' classroom. And the zombie outbreak. Who told you the zombies came from the amusement park? I didn't even know they were setting up that attraction. I mean, how can you tell for how long Fiendl knows about that? And he wasn't even there when it happened!"

Justin stares at Alex in complete silence for a couple seconds. And Alex stares back at him, waiting for him to say something. Now it is Justin's time to put some thinking into it. His eyes get lost as he considers the facts that she put together.

"Maybe you really are on to something!" Justin agrees.

"What do you think now, Justin? Which one of us seems more guilty." She practically dares him.

"I gotta say you built a strong case against him." Justin agrees.

"So, let's go get him!" Alex tries to urge him into action.

"Not so fast. I'm still not ready to let you off the hook." Justin stops her

"Come onnnn!"

"And it may very well be all just a coincidence." Justin explains. "I mean, you looked pretty involved too."

Then something behind Justin calls Alex's attention. "Really, huh!?…" Alex interjects, wryly staring at Justin. "It's been a nice day, we all here… away from WizTech… alllll daaaay lonnnng."

Justin's scrunched up face is a good sign he noticed all the malice in her statement. "Yeah! So?!" He asks.

"Well, then why is your butt shinning?"

After a second, Justin pulls his wand from his back pocket. Again the blue and red lights shine on the tool's tip showing that, one more time, there is something threatening the school.

Before they can react in any way, they start feeling something, a familiar sensation they recognize right away. They have used this spell many times. They know how it works.

The room around them starts to wave and distort becoming fuzzy then blurred to the point where their lair is beyond recognition. And right away something else starts to show. A new image just as blurred as before starts taking shape around them, and it becomes clearer by the second. The fuzzy environment is still not clear enough but it feels so familiar.

When the teleportation spell is concluded, they see themselves back in WizTech, in the middle of the front patio. Looking around, the empty place in a weekend evening doesn't look very reassuring. It should be full of children running everywhere, having some fun. Instead, all they have is the eeriness of the dark and empty space.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 - Facing the evil.

.

.

.

Alex and Justin look at each other, for a moment their expressions letting out the tension of the situation. Justin breaks the disturbing silence. "You didn't flash us here, did you?"

"I wasn't even holding my wand. So, that wasn't you, either?" Alex replies.

"My wand was right at your face. You would've seen if I had done it." He shoots back. Alex takes the aggressive tone of his answer as mere preoccupation for the school and the students under his watch. Even Justin notices he overreacted, so he takes a few calming breaths while looking around. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asks.

"I'm thinking that Mom will be really pissed that you left without saying goodbye. But I'm sure that's not what you were thinking."

"Now, I am!" He squeals.

"Calm down! What is she gonna do? Ground you?"

"I don't know. Holding me around her for three hours didn't feel bad AT ALL!" He answers in pure sarcasm.

"Okay, I get it. She can get creative at punishing you. Now, can we focus on what's going on in here?"

"YOU started it!" Justin retorts.

"Fine! Now I'm ending it. Let's go!" She gestures toward the big doors that take to inside the castle, to the entrance hall. They hang wide open, maybe because whatever happened was sudden, not leaving time to close it in reaction.

"Let's look inside." He agrees.

Alex pulls her wand and starts walking in first. She enters the hall followed by Justin. Same as outside, no living soul is in there, not even one sound heard.

"Where's everybody?" Alex asks.

"There was something threatening the school or my wand wouldn't show the alarm. So they are either hiding or..."

"Someone did something to them." Alex completes after Justin hesitates for a second.

"That would be the other possibility." Justin replies.

"No! I mean I'm sure someone did something to everybody. And that someone is Fiendl."

"Alex, let's investigate first."

"Come on, Justin! How much more proof do you need? You said yourself I built a strong case against him."

"Those are good evidences, but not enough to close the case."

"You know, I hate when your evidences get in the way of my great stories." Alex complains.

"Why don't we focus on finding where everybody is first? Then we think about who did it." Justin suggests.

"If we figure out who did it, we can find out what he did." Alex counterarguments. "…I just wish he would show up, already. It would spare us a lot of work."

"Yeah, right! As if that ever happens!" Justin let's out in sarcasm.

Then, for a response to Alex's wish, a wizard starts materializing just outside the front doors. Even before getting fully formed, the two have their wands on target. And, surely is Fiendl as Alex predicted.

"I KNEW IT!" Alex says, slapping Justin's arm. "You are the evil wizard responsible for this." She accuses Fiendl.

"Yes! It's me!" Fiendl confirms, for the first time supporting an angry tone and a fierce stare.

"So you are responsible for the attacks on the school!" Justin wonders.

"He just said that!" Alex remarks. "By the way, YOU FRAMED ME FOR IT!" She complains, angrily.

"Well, I was going to frame Stumbler at first." Fiendl answers. "But when I understood how your relationship works it seemed a lot funnier to throw that on you and watch from afar. And you two fell so easily for my distractions and never saw what I was doing behind your back."

"That's why my wand kept sending signals during the attacks. The app was signaling whatever you were doing."

"And the 'extraordinary' Headmaster Russo never saw it coming." Fiendl mocks him. "Crumbs will be so disappointed in you." He completes with fake disapproval.

"Professor Crumbs! That's right!" Alex quietly muses. The sudden realization of the events that landed her the job at WizTech now take a new meaning. She looks up at Fiendl with a big confident smile. "You're just forgetting one thing!" She confronts him.

"Uhm! No, I don't think I am." Fiendl replies with confidence. And even Justin looks at her doubtfully.

Alex explains. "You may have played us. But what you missed is that Professor Crumbs played you."

"How so?" Fiendl asks, completely lost.

"What you didn't notice is that he made you put me in here, together with Justin. And NO ONE has ever beaten us when we were together."

"That's right, Alex!" Justin agrees, full of confidence and pride.

"And that's not all." Alex continues. "I've been on to you for a long time. …" She takes a dramatic break. "…And I know all about you." Uhm! Is she playing him.

Fiendl snarls in anger. "Then, I guess you two are really as good as your reputations say." Yeah, right! "If you know it, then you must have found out who I am." Fiendl says.

"Oh, yes. We do!" Yeah, she is so playing him.

And as soon as Alex says it, Justin notices her game. "Yes, we do!" Justin plays along. "And I demand to know right now why you're doing this."

"Why else would it be?" He complains, raving with anger. "You have no idea what you caused to my family." He takes a moment, his face bringing a whining expression. "My dear sister Mary Beth Evilini." He laments. "She was the only one in the family that I didn't detest." He professes, finishing with some anger. "…Oh, yes, we had some memorable fights." The man sniffles. "…I treasure all the moments where we almost ripped each other's heads off." His whiny expression gets deeper and deeper.

Alex and Justin look at each other with scrunched up faces. Then, an awkward feeling of familiarity takes over, making them look away, back to Fiendl.

He continues. "And now we can only yell at each other from behind the protective plastic shield."

"That's a twisted family love." Alex states, trying to push away the awkwardness.

"Family love?" Fiendl protests angrily, his whiny expression disappearing faster than a blink of an eye. "I wouldn't go that far." He finishes.

"Wait!" Alex says. "If Evilini is your sister, how do you still have powers?"

"Hah!" He lets out in a self-satisfied tone. "I've STOLEN them." He keeps a creepy grin on. "Bit by bit, the strongest abilities from wizards all over the world. Then I changed my name and returned to take my revenge on all of you … That is, right after I got rid of Adlib. That man got on my nerves."

"I know, right?" Alex agrees. "It was so stupid how he kept quoting poems all the time! And he kept dropping those…"

"ALEX!" Justin shouts, making her stop talking and look at him. "Could you, please, not agree with the evil guy, here?"

"Sorry!" She replies.

"Wait! So your name is not Fiendl?!" Justin states about the obvious similarity and connotation of the evil man's last name.

"Yes, it is!" Fiendl casually answers.

"But you said you changed your name!" Alex completes, and Justin agrees, nodding.

"I changed my first name." Fiendl explains.

"So you kept 'Fiendl' and chose 'Percy' for a name?" Alex asks him with the mocking well implied.

"Percy is a perfectly good name!" Fiendl whines.

"Not really!" Justin agrees with Alex.

"Yeah! I mean…" Alex takes over. "…your real name can't be much worse than Percy?" She laughs.

"I'm Pervercival Fiendl!" He proudly fills his chest, practically chanting his real name.

"You know, Percy is nice." Alex shoots without missing a bit.

"Yeah, super." Justin agrees.

"You both shut up!" Fiendl shouts. "Enough with this pointless talk. I have my plan to take care of, and you two have to be trapped in there, and suffer my revenge. Goodbye!" He lifts his wand and disappears again.

Justin and Alex look at each other.

"Damn!" Alex shouts. "I wanted to get more away from him about his plan."

"Me too!" Justin agrees. "I think now we have to find out where everybody is. Maybe they can tell us something."

"That if they are still here." Alex says.

"He wouldn't take the risk of letting people out. They could tell the authorities and ruin his plan. I think they are still in here. But where?" Justin thinks hard about it. He surely knows the entire school by now, but he can think of so many possibilities, each to be used in a different scenario depending on Fiendl intentions. And they don't have time to go through all of them.

"Hey! What about the ballroom?" Alex suggests.

"Yeah! Right!…" Justin recognizes. He knows the ballroom is a big space with basically one single exit. It is a good place to lock people up and reduce the possibilities of an escape. "…Wait a minute. How do you know about the ballroom? It's locked. No one should be able to get in there!"

"Uhm! … Not important… right now… okay!?" She defects. "Let's go and see if they're there!"

"Fine!" Justin lets the subject go, but he surely is not going to forget about it. He just hopes the ballroom is a good call. They have no time to lose.

TO ALL OF YOU PERCYS OUT THERE. The opinions expressed by Alex and Justin in this chapter about 'Percy' do not reflect the opinions of the author of this story. The characters' opinions are portrayed for comic purpose only. 'Percy' IS a perfectly suitable name, and this author supports and cares for all of you.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 - Alex's charm still works.

.

.

.

This is killing Justin, not knowing what Fiendl did to the people in WizTech. On their way to the Ballroom, he and Alex move fast but with caution, their wands always ready, just in case Fiendl have set any traps to keep them away.

They finally arrive, the big doors standing tall in front of them, hopefully hiding everybody on the other side. Justin takes a moment staring at them, contemplating the implications of what they might find. "I hope they are in there!" Justin sighs. "And that they are okay!"

"Yeaup!… …Let's get in, then"

"No! Wait!" Justin quickly grabs her arm to stop Alex from touching the door. "Let's test it first."

"Ugh! Whatever!" Alex answers.

Justin steps closer, wand up toward the door, and swiftly pokes it to test for any spells. And it sure produces a wave of magical energy that spreads from the tip of his wand outwards. He steps back quickly to where Alex waits.

"I guess you got the place right." Justin says.

"Now how do we get in?" Alex asks.

Justin looks back at her with a smug smile. He waves his wand and the spell securing the door explodes, leaving it unprotected. Another wave of his and the doors move to fully opened. "Let's go." He urges.

They step inside the room and the lights turn on, revealing a crowd of students, teachers and staff members, all of them absolutely motionless, in a frozen state. Justin and Alex walk around, completely stupefied by the scene of all the people standing in the most various positions, not one of them seeming to be aware of what would happen the moment they were frozen still.

"What did Fiendl do to them?" Alex asks Justin.

"He used a Suspension Spell. It seems like everybody in the school was frozen in the same moment." Justin explains.

"Can you undo it?" She suggests.

"I don't think so! This seems to be the same spell that cops use on evil wizards. If Fiendl used the spell lock then it can only be undone with his wand." Justin waves his own toward the closest teacher he can find. The spell hits the target, but a protective barrier shines, canceling Justin's spell. "Yeah! Not gonna work."

"Well, looks like they are fine for now. We should focus on finding out Fiendl's plan." Alex affirms.

"Seriously, Alex?!" Justin tells her with some annoyance. "Doesn't this bother you at all?"

"What bothers me is looking over there and seeing that Stein was in the bathroom when everybody was frozen. And when the spell gets broken, I don't wanna be here to find out if that is his normal face or his toilet face." She is immediately scolded by Justin's disapproval face.

They take a moment of silence, thinking what will be their next step.

"Justin…" Alex calls him with a doubtful tone. "If Fiendl froze everybody, why didn't he freeze us too?"

"He couldn't!" Justin affirms. "D'you know how my wand gives me an alarm when the school is under threat?" She replies with a quick nod. "If he attempted anything against me the same app would send out an alarm to the authorities. This place would be filled with cops before he could try anything else."

"Clever!" Alex congratulates.

"EXACTLY!" Fiendl's voice surprises them, coming from the door. "Not that it would be a problem." He tells them staying outside, in the hallway. "You cannot stop me. After today my name will be in history."

"You mean 'Pervercival Fiendl'?" Alex asks with a mocking smile.

"Yes!" Fiendl bitingly confirms.

"You know, I don't get it! Why didn't you change it to something like Percy… Friendly?" This kind of thing will always puzzle Justin.

"It would be a too friendly name. It kind of creeps me out." Fiendl explains, taking a moment of silence with a disgusted face. "You two are never going to interfere with my plan." He professes without stammering or showing any surprise or despondency.

"Pfff! Of course we will!" Alex retorts on the spot.

"Yes! We surely will!" Justin hesitantly agrees.

"Actually, we already have." Alex says with a quick glimpse at Justin. "AND… we took care of it!" She tells with a calm voice, casually keeping her hand on her waist. And Justin quickly understands her game.

Fiendl takes a quick look around the ballroom. A special glance at a particularly big pile of dust next to the door, but which also spreads everywhere. "Hahahahaha! You are lying! I can see the dust on the floor and around the corners." He brags.

Again the siblings slyly look at each other, thinking about what Alex just took away of the evil wizard.

"Really?" She continues. "What makes you think this is the only way to stop you? We left the dust just so you wouldn't suspect anything."

"I think not!" Fiendl shouts. "I don't think you managed to enter my office. The spell I cast on the door is very strong."

"We are the Russos." Alex shoots back. "We're better than that."

"Yeah!" Justin says. "We will stop you and deliver you to the authorities."

"Well. Let's find out who wins, then." And one more time, Fiendl flashes himself away, disappearing to give motion to his plan.

"It always amazes me how this keeps working." Justin says, staring away toward where Fiendl was a moment ago. Alex has the same amused stare, nodding to agree.

Then she turns to Justin and pushes him away. "Let's go. Quick. To his office."

Justin immediately starts running away for the door, then out of the ballroom and through the hallways of the castle.

Justin runs. He enters the long hallway, going as fast as he can. He doesn't look back at Alex, he just wants to get there as soon as possible. He has to make it to the other end of the hallway, then turn right to another lengthy hallway. Then he finally gets to the door to Fiendl's classroom.

Justin bends down, hands on his knees, hyperventilating. He looks around and Alex is nowhere. She is not coming after him. Maybe he just outran her. He has been training, you know. Nothing to do with Alex's high heeled boots.

PUFF! Alex flashes herself in front of him.

"Where… …were you?" He asks while gulping for air.

"What!? Did you think I was gonna run all the way here? Why didn't YOU flash yourself?" She says seriously, but… you know… always kind of mocking.

"I'll remember… …next time." Another big inhale.

"Okay! Let's go!" She says, shooing Justin. "You go in first."

"What? … Why me?" He replies, still a little winded.

"I don't wanna run into any traps!"

"And I can?" He lets out with some annoyance.

"Would you just go!?" Alex tells him already pushing him to the door.

Justin pushes her away and steps closer to it.

The door is open and Justin walks closer, but he can't tell if it is safe to come in. He pulls out his wand and pokes through the door. Nothing. So he comes in carefully, Alex following suit with her wand aiming ahead, partially hiding behind Justin.

Instead of walking to the center, Justin stays close to the wall, by the side of the classroom. He slowly moves to the other end, toward the professor's desk, behind which stays the door to the all-in-one office and dormitory.

They get past the desk without incidents.

"Huh! That was easy!" Justin says with a smile. Alex shrugs back. Even she was expecting something more.

They both stare at the closed door, not sure what to expect. Then Justin steps closer, takes the doorknob and pushes it a few times, trying to open it.

"Yeah, nice try, genius." Alex mocks, with her hands on her hips and a mad stare. "Didn't you hear Fiendl say that he put a spell on the door? Did you think you could just pull it open?"

"There wasn't any spells coming in. I thought it was worth the try!" He defends himself.

"What if the spell was supposed to do something when you tried to open the door." She supposes. Shouldn't be Justin the one with good sense.

"Yeah! Right!" He stares at her dumbly. Then he gives a few steps away and raises his wand.

Justin waves it, casting a spell to try and open the door, but it bounces back almost hitting him and Alex as it flies away; it was just by a hair. Fiendl was right. The spell protecting the door is strong.

"Yeah, that didn't work." Alex points out.

"That was the strongest spell I know. If that didn't work…"

They look at each other for a moment. Justin is out of ideas.

Then it occurs to Alex. "Hey, remember what Fiendl said? Something about family, that if we joined our powers in one person, that would be the most powerful wizard? … …Or something?"

"Yeah! So?"

"Let's try it together. I mean, maybe that's why Professor Crumbs wanted us together. Maybe he thought we could be stronger than Fiendl." Alex suggests.

Justin considers it for a second, "Okay!" then he points his wand to the door again and waits for Alex.

She is ready. They look at each other for a second then move together, almost mirroring each other, shooting the spell. When it hits the door, it shatters the protection spell to a rain of sparkles, pushing the door open with such strength that it slams the other way.

One more time they look at each other, big smiles on. "It worked!" Alex herself is surprised.

She comes in the office and, before anything, notices the pile of rocks on the desk in a corner, then another one on top of a cabinet. Dust looks like an even bigger problem in here. Justin firstly looks around, for Fiendl or anything giving any hint about his plans, you know other than the dust.

"Wow, these are a lot of rocks." Alex goes for the obvious as she gazes at the big pile on the desk. "And they all look like the same."

"Hah! No!" Justin says as he smiles, smugly. "It takes someone like me, with some knowledge about geology to notice that…" Justin takes the first real, attentive look at the rocks. "…they DO all look like the same!" He agrees, with some surprise.

Alex turns to Justin with a suspicious stare "Why would he need a pile of rocks like these? What would he do with it?" Alex asks.

"Well… There are some uses for it. Most commonly he could turn it into…" He stops and his eyes shot at Alex as if finally something comes to him. "…POWDER!" He shouts. "That's what the dust is."

Both of them look around the room, the dust taking up every corner now making a lot of sense. And whatever the plan is, the entire school is the target.

"Urrgh!… Now all of his night strolls make sense. He was dumping the dust." Alex angrily utters.

"And that's why he wasn't solving the problem with the cleaning crew. So it would stay around." Justin completes.

"Exactly." Alex says. "Justin, can you tell what kind of stone this is? What would he use it for?"

"Uhm!…" He grabs a stone and takes a closer look. "This is a volcanic stone!" Justin looks at Alex and she stares at him, a scrunched up, doubtful face showing that she is completely clueless. "Like lava from a volcano… This is how it gets when it cools down and hardens." He breaks it down for her.

"Ohhh!" Now he's spoken her language.

' _…Lava from a volcano!_ ' That clicks something in Alex's mind. WizTech and volcanoes. She still remembers it, right away making the connection to Volcano Land, and her trip to the underwater volcanic park. That was how Justin almost had his powers stolen the first time they attended this school. Alex looks back at Justin, stunned and scared for that possibility, and he has the same countenance, as the same idea hits him.

"He's trying to steal our powers!" Justin and Alex shout at the same time, in unison.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - And the plans unravel.

.

.

.

"The missing power transfer machine. Now it makes sense." Justin says.

"D'you mind sharing it with the rest of the class, then?!" Alex asks.

"Well, assuming that's what Fiendl is really trying to do, it's not that easy to steal the powers of everybody inside the castle at once. It's just too many people. So, it would make sense to combine the effects of an underwater volcano and a power transfer machine to do it."

"Can he do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe!" Justin answers.

"Well, let's go, then." Alex urges "We gotta find him fast, before he starts. I don't wanna lose my powers"

"NO! No! Let's calm down." Justin says. "I think we are safe for now. When underwater volcanoes are used to steal powers, the 'underwater' part is essential to the transfer. We are not underwater." He says with a smile. And while he says it, a faint flash calls Alex attention through the window behind Justin.

But he continues. "Maybe he overlooked that part. Then it's simply not gonna work."

"No! I think he got that one!" Alex points out with some annoyance, gesturing to the window.

Justin turns around and looks outside. "WHAT?" He steps closer to the window and sees that the forest that once surrounded the castle has become the deep of the ocean, kept away from the school by some kind of magical barrier.

He turns back to Alex "Now he has the means to get all of our powers!" He freaks out.

"Yeah! Not cool!" Alex says.

"You think?! … … We gotta find where Fiendl's keeping the machine."

"Any ideas of where to look for it, then?" Alex asks.

"Not really. I need a second to think." Justin rubs his forehead.

Just when Alex was about to yell at Justin, saying that they have no time to stop and think, something else captures her attention. "Is it just me or it's getting hot in here?"

Justin looks at her, eyes deeply scrunched up in an annoyed expression. But Alex is right. Justin also notices that it is really getting hotter in there.

"Aahhh!" Justin yells and drops the rock he was still holding. "The rock burned my hand." He whines to Alex. Wait! Volcanic stone? Getting hotter? Big problem!

Justin goes to a pile of dust and puts his hand closer to it. "The dust is hot too… …WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" Justin yells and, without missing a beat, runs to Alex taking her arm and pulling her to the door. They cross the classroom and stop near the exit door. Justin looks back. The dust on the corners starts to let out a faint red glow. Justin knows where this is going.

"We gotta get outside." Justin yells again, one more time taking Alex's hand to pull her away.

But, before they are even out of the classroom, Alex raises her wand and casts a spell. They are teleported to the front patio. The cool air outside brings the relief they need to study their situation. They look back inside and the dust reaches an almost white glow that surely would be dangerous if they had stayed inside.

"That was a close one!" Justin says in a sigh.

"What the hell was that?" Alex yells.

"Lava!" Justin exclaims. "It's what it takes to help in stealing powers. I guess Fiendl put into action the next step of his plan. He heated up the dust and now he can start the transfer."

"What about everybody inside?" Alex asks.

"I think they'll be safe from the heat while they stay frozen. But we're getting out of time. We have to find out where the Power Transfer machine is." Justin says, getting back to the problem.

Now that they are outside, they take a moment to look up and study without obstacles the sky turned into the deep of the ocean above them. It would be interesting to watch if it wasn't the most inappropriate moment. Things are tense, you know.

As it never fails to happen to them in these moments, just as they are looking up a burst of light shines on top of a tower. And not just any tower.

"Of course. The Tower of Evil!" Justin exclaims.

"I don't like that place." Alex curses, and Justin looks at her, blankly. "That place made me look ugly!" She explains.

Justin shakes his head in disapproval, revolving his eyes for her superficiality. Really? That is what she is thinking about right now? "We gotta go up there." He says.

"Fine! Let's take the elevator." Alex says already walking to it, finger aiming to press the call button.

"No, Alex! It's not gonna…" Before he can finish the phrase, Alex hits the button making it light up, showing it is perfectly functional. "…work!" Justin finishes.

Alex looks back at him, grinning.

"But I deactivated the elevator and blocked the stairs!" Justin explains.

"You did a very lousy job, then." She retorts.

"Shut up!"

The door opens presenting the cabin, perfectly preserved. Alex carefully peeks inside. The floor, walls, the ceiling; all looks fine. She pokes her wand in just to be sure. "It's fine by me." Alex tells.

"Don't get in just yet." Justin prevents her. He walks to her side, and studies the interior of the cabin.

He carefully examines the equipment, spending the precious time they don't have.

"You done?" She asks with vexation.

Justin peeks at her, then back to the floor of the elevator. He shakes his wand inside, then his foot, and quickly taps it on the floor. Alex is getting really annoyed. And finally Justin steps inside and waits for a second. "I think it's safe."

"Oh, my…" Alex curses and walks in, pushing Justin out of the way to stand beside him. She slaps the button and the elevator starts taking then up.

The elevator stops and opens for them. When they come out, Justin immediately recognizes the machine that stands in the middle of the terrace. However, the old Power Transfer Machine is not exactly in the same state as it was before disappearing.

"The missing power transfer machine." Justin tells Alex. "Look!" He interjects, pointing to the top of it. "And the missing crystal balls. I think he is using them as an antenna to collect the powers so the wizards don't have to touch the machine."

"The crystal balls are a nice touch. But those bidaddles down there, just look like a trashy add to the design." Alex laughs.

"No! Bidaddles have to connect to your powers to work. I bet he is using them to collect and absorb the powers." He explains.

Then Fiendl appears, flashing in just beside the machine. "Very clever, Russo!"

"This is why you set up those attacks to the school. The first attack was to clear the entrance to the tower and the second was to bring the machine up here." Justin infers.

"Yes! And nobody noticed it. They were all busy running away like cowards. Not even you saw it, the extraordinary Headmaster Russo." Fiendl brags.

"Well, now we know." Alex defends them both. "And we're here to get you."

"You cannot stop me now. The powers are already being sucked out."

"Oh, yeah!?" Alex says. "Let's see that!" She raises her wand and fires a powerful lightning bolt against the machine. However, instead of striking against it, the bolt is simply diverted up to the crystal balls on the top, and absorbed by it. "It didn't work!" She growls as she gives up on the attack.

"HaHaHaHa! At this point any power will be absorbed. You cannot do anything." Fiendl vaunts.

Then Justin pulls his wand and repeats Alex's move. The lightning bolt he fires seems even more impressive than the one Alex produced. He is putting all the strength he has on the attack but it happens to him the same that happened to Alex. The machine squeaks and shakes but absorbs everything, making Justin give up on the attack.

Just as soon as he stops, lightnings of wizard power come up from the castle from all the wizards trapped in it. They gather above the machine and descend as one, hitting the crystal balls to enter the machine. "It's happening!" Fiendl screams then plunges to it, grabbing the bidaddles to steal the powers. "They will be all mine! And you cannot stop me! HaHaHaHaHa!"

Again, the machine screeches and grates and shakes as it deals with this much power.

"Alex, can you hear this?" Justin asks. "This machine is old and I think it's working on its limit." He points out right away.

"You mean you think it's too much?"

"Yeah!"

"Then let's shove some real power down its throat." Alex incites.

Both siblings raise their wands. They take aim at the crystal balls and wave it together to fire their most powerful attack against the machine. The bolts they produce are equally formidable. If, in her first try, Alex didn't match Justin's strength, now she perfectly levels up to him.

As they fire their attack, a strange pull between their wands quickly goes from weird to more than they can resist. Their bolts dangerously seek for one another. They start stepping closer, accepting and following this pull they feel. And, with one last step, their hands touch and the wands cross each other. The bolts become one in an unimaginably powerful emanation.

Their strike seems even stronger than all the power being stolen from the wizards in the castle. The conduit that connects the crystal balls to the machine starts to shine a bright red glow as it deals with much more than it was design to handle. The screeches sound louder and more menacing than before. The machine is struggling.

"No! What are you doing!?" Fiendl screams.

Now sparkles fly away and small strikes leak from all around the machine. The equipment is choking and, if anything, Alex and Justin are only getting stronger.

"NO! STOP THAT!" Fiendl screams again, now unable to remove his hands from the bidaddles.

The machine produces one last cry, the strikes leak furiously forming a ball of energy all around it. And, with a fraction of second of full silence, the machine explodes with a wave of wizard power tearing it apart and launching away its broken parts.

Alex and Justin flinch for a second but their powerful attack diverts all the parts flying their way just before they stop.

Then, silence. The siblings look back at the machine. Only a small part of the lower construction of it remains together, and pieces spread around the terrace. Fiendl lies on a corner, unconscious. His face is smudged and parts of his clothes are scorched by the explosion. His hands seem injured.

Justin slowly comes closer to the evil wizard. He stoops down and takes the wand from him, careful not to make any sudden moves or any sound that could wake him up. Then he quickly steps away, back to where Alex is.

"Time for Professor Fiendl go away." Justin waves his wand toward Fiendl and the evil man disappears.

"Where did you send him?" Alex asks.

"Well, there's this little room in the dungeons with a very big lock that's spell proof. He's gonna spend some time in there until the wizard cops arrive."

"Nice!" Alex tells. "And I think we can go back, now. Right?" Alex looks up at the ocean above them and points her wand.

"Try it out!" Justin agrees.

Alex shoots a powerful spell up that hits the water above. It spreads all around and the ocean starts giving space to the starry sky of the clear night. The siblings look around to see the castle's original landscape back where it should be.

"Nice!" Justin replies to Alex. They smile to each other, happy that the dangerous situation is now over.

"Hey, what about the people in the ballroom? You said that only Fiendl could undo the spell on them." Alex questions Justin.

"Well… The cool thing about being the Headmaster here is that you have clearance to use some apps that can do a lot of cool things…" He tells as he lifts his wand to hold it along with Fiendl's, keeping both of them together side by side. Then he looks closely at Fiendl's wand. "…Like…" He fumbles a little bit on the wand and the tip shines. "…activate the undo function." The wand shines brighter for just a second, then dies down until it is off. "…And a few other things." He completes.

"Cool." Alex reaches out to grab Fiendl's wand. "What else does it do?"

"Nuh-uh! No touching!" Justin shouts, pulling it away from her.

"Fine!… And how do you get to do these 'cool things'?" She asks mischievously while Justin attentively checks the wand out.

"Just some high placements get to do it. Like the Wizard Councilors, the school Headmasters or the vice…" Justin stops. He realizes he is giving too much information. "…a few people!"

"Uh-huh!" Alex slyly utters.

"I think we should go and see if everybody is okay!" Justin defects, going to the elevator and pressing the button.


	16. Epilogue

Epilogue - All is well when… Actually, not so much for Justin.

.

.

.

Alex and Justin come out of the Tower of Evil, back to the patio.

"Hey!" Alex calls out and Justin looks back at her. "Why didn't the machine work on us? I mean, it didn't steal our powers!"

Justin stares at her, thinking, as he only now realizes it. "Uhm!…" However, looking around the patio gives him a clue. "The black hole." He exclaims as it jumps to his mind. "When you opened it to get rid of the zombies, it sucked in a lot of the dust from the patio. And maybe what was left wasn't enough to affect us all the way up there on the tower, not as bad at least."

"So, you mean that what Fiendl did against us turned right back at him!?" Alex points out.

"Yeah! That's a nice felling, isn't it?"

"It's always nice when your revenge comes straight from your foe's screw up. Even when you're completely clueless!" Alex completes.

With a careful look around as they come closer to the entrance of the castle, they can still see some of the dust in the corners, left behind by the plot that almost took away their wizard ability, now back to the dark cold state just as before being charmed.

"We gotta get rid of all this dust." Justin tells Alex.

"I get that!" Alex steps ahead and raises her wand. "Any dust around the entire place, make it go far into outer space."

Out of every window in sight, the siblings notice a faint dust cloud flying out then up, disappearing into the sky. Justin looks at Alex, eyes narrow and mouth squeezed, stretching to the left, disapprovingly.

"What! Did you really think I vacuum back at home?"

"Into outer space? Did it have to be that far?"

"Is there any use for it? No! So now we can move on with a little less dust in our lives." She arguments.

"You can't have less dust in your life because dust is actually…"

"Nah! No!" Alex interrupts him. "I don't wanna listen to your nerd information. I've had enough for a day."

Justin sighs. "Let's just… go back in and see if everyone is okay." He calls, as he starts walking to the door.

They go all the way back to the ballroom. As they arrive there, they find every student, teacher and other school staff now free of the spell that imprisoned them, but still waiting inside. Unable to say what was happening, the teachers decided to stay in, keeping the kids as safe as they could. Justin takes a moment explaining what had happened, and assuring that things are under control, that the wizard cops should be arriving in moments, and the best for now is to stay there and wait.

Professor Stein comes ahead from the group to talk to Justin. "Headmaster Russo, this must've been quite a feat." Stein stops in front of him and Alex. "Thank for solving the situation and saving us." The man offers Justin a handshake.

Alex makes a disgust face and Justin stares at the hand, hiding both of his behind his back. "Uhm!… No need to thank me." He smiles at the… well, man, and stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Just doing my job."

"Miss Russo…" Stein tries, turning to her.

"Ew! … No!" Alex turns around and walks away.

"I just…" Justin points to her then makes a quick exit, catching up to her as fast as he can.

Soon the wizard cops arrive and Justin takes them to where he trapped Fiendl. Alex is kept in his office to give her testimony of the situation. Yeah! Justin would love to watch that. Those poor cops have no idea!

While Justin deals with the cops and security issues, he tasks Stumbler with organizing a few teachers to take care of the kids, making sure that all of them are well and have no side effects of the suspension spell, or anything else Fiendl may have done that they haven't discovered yet.

Very late, as Justin and Alex head to the cafeteria to have dinner practically at the small hours, Professor Stumbler's voice utters for them. "Headmaster Russo!" Justin stops to wait for the man, and Alex stops by his side. "Just a quick report."

"Yes!?" Justin asks.

"All the kids have been accounted for, examined and cleared…" As Stumbler tells, Alex curiously stares at his face. Even if uncomfortably, Stumbler continues. "Uhm! …They already had dinner and are ready to go to bed, if that's okay with you." Alex comes a step closer.

"Sure! Send them off to bed." Justin agrees, repeating Alex's attentive stare. "I'll see if a few cops can stay and guard the dormitories for tonight."

"Wonderful! That should calm the kids down." Stumbler answers, uncomfortably shifting his gaze between Alex and Justin. "By the way, I didn't have the chance to thank you both for saving all of us." He tries to move away, but Alex comes even closer, his glasses evidently the object of her attention.

"Oh, no need to thank." Justin moves his head around to have a different angle on his glasses.

"Yeah!… Noooo biggy!" Alex replies, focusing on the garment.

"ALRIGHT! Alright! I confess!" Stumbler states begrudgingly, jumping back a whole step. Alex and Justin quickly step away. "I don't know how you got this right. Apparently you two live up to your reputations. …" That again?

Stumbler gives a big sigh. "My glasses were made from crystal balls. … Not the crystal balls that disappeared, though. They are much older. But I've lost those glasses before the beginning of the classes and I couldn't find them since." The man whines. "I had to replace for these normal ones." He adjusts the prop on his face.

Alex turns to Justin with a self-satisfied expression for being right.

Justin is not going to do that right now! So, he turns back to Stumbler. "Uhm!… I think I might know where to find them." Justin tells him.

After Alex and Justin have dinner along with a few teachers, Justin decides to stay up all night, just in case any angry parents decide to show up. So he goes to his office and starts taking care of the immense amount of paperwork this entire situation certainly generated. Then Alex intrudes the office with her enormous cup of energy drink, she doesnt even knock anymore. She drops herself on the couch behind the door, throwing her feet on the center table. "Did you find Stumbler's glasses in the things they recovered from Fiendl's office?"

"Yeah!" Justin doesn't really care about her presence. "He must've taken them so Stumbler couldn't see what he was up to."

"Yeah! Makes sense." Alex answers.

Justin writes a few more words on his paper, keeping the room silent for a moment. Suddenly he stops, lets out a sigh, "Do you really think Crumbs plotted to get us here together to face Fiendl?" He wonders.

"I mean, think about it." Alex tells. "Crumbs indicated me for the job!? To trust me the education of the most brilliant future wizards!? After supervising my entire wizard training!?" She tells Justin.

"Looking from that angle." Justin agrees.

"But, on the other hand, he also saw how many times we were there together to save the day. So…" She remembers.

"We've been doing this for a long time, haven't we?" He reminisces with a kind smile.

With the straw still in her mouth, Alex smiles back, remembering their childhood full of excitement. "Yeah! … I mean! … We can't do anything together that there's always… a wizard planning to take over the Wizard world… or to destroy the Wizard world, or… aliens randomly threatening to destroy the entire world for some stupid milkshake."

"Actually, that was on you!"

She looks at him with a disapproving scrunched up face. He just nods.

"That's not how I chose to remember it." Alex informs and Justin smiles, shaking his head. "So… what happens to classes, now?" She asks.

"Well, when the parents get informed about what happened, which must be already happening, they'll surely start popping in. It'll take some time to convince them everything is under control now. We will probably have to stop classes for a couple days."

"And what about the Potions class?" She points out.

"I'll have to find someone fill in."

"You could call Dad. Wasn't potions, like, one of his favorites?" She suggests.

"I think I have enough family involved in work, already." Justin shoots back. "…And I have enough to do… like… talk to the Council, to teachers, to lots of angry parents…"

"Alright! You're swamped in work. I get it."

"I have to find someone to sketch the security reports to the Safety Board, that thanks to you!"

"Ugh! You really know how to kill all the fun!" Alex complains, she really wanted to see him try it.

"Funny! …All that and now I don't even have a vice-Headmaster to assist me." Justin says, completely lost in his long "to-do" list.

Then it sinks in and he looks at Alex. The smile she holds with goggled eyes, gaping him as if she had the best of ideas, again. He so hates this face on her.

"I'm not making you my vice-Headmaster!" Justin practically shouts at Alex, in a fit of panic.

"Oh, come on. It would be so cool. The Russos, owning WizTech!" She says very excited. "That would look great in a t-shirt. …I mean, as long as your face doesn't ruin it!"

"You just wanna do it because of the 'Cool Things' I mentioned about the wand." Justin calls her out.

"If you had told me what those ' _cool things_ ' are I wouldn't have to do it to find out."

"Alex! Look, I have to trust the person I put on the job."

"Well, look at it this way. You can trust me…" dramatic pause, "…to keep being me." She smiles wide at him, very proud of this one.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better? Because you know they are not the same."

"Come on! All you have to do is to… like… sign a paper or something. It's all up to you, anyway." Alex incites.

"I can't do that. That would be nepotism, and that is not seen with good eyes in the world of business."

"So, you're saying you're afraid." Alex calls him out on it.

"This has nothing to do with fear!" Justin explains.

"Yeah, right!" Alex dares him.

"I'm not afraid!" He complains.

"Yes, you are!" She retorts.

"I'm not afraid!" He shouts.

" _Bok-Bok_! Chicken!" Alex teases.

"I'm not afraid!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"Then prove it!" She dares.

Yeah! You know what!? Some things just never change!

The End.


End file.
